REUTERS/Kate Munsch
The Trump administration on Thursday night asked the US Supreme Court to reinstate President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the US from six Muslim-majority countries while it appeals a lower court ruling that upheld a nationwide block on the ban last month.
The Justice Department’s petition asks the high court’s nine-judge panel to rule on the legality of Trump’s order. In its May ruling, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals argued that the travel ban “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
In its appeal filed Thursday night, the DOJ argued that the lower court’s ruling contained “several mistakes.”DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores asserted that the ban is lawful, and said it was structured in the interest of national security.
“We have asked the Supreme Court to hear this important case and are confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the Nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism,” Flores said in a statement.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the same assertion last month after the 4th Circuit Court’s ruling, saying “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the decision of the divided court, which blocks the President’s efforts to strengthen this country’s national security.”
The Trump administration had vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court after the first of two versions of Trump’s executive order on travel was slapped down by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in February.
The administration’s move on Thursday night came hours after Trump announced he would withdraw the US from the Paris climate-change agreement, a decision that earned nearly universal condemnation from US lawmakers, top business executives, and world leaders.
