06/15/2017

Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Travel Ban

The court's ruling is expected in the next few weeks

After a second federal appeals court ruled against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban earlier this week, the fate of the executive order is squarely in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court is expected to announce soon whether to hear the government’s appeal of lower court rulings that have blocked the controversial travel ban from taking effect. The revised order, which Trump signed in March, would ban travelers from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days and suspend all refugee admissions for 120 days.

The administration has encountered a string of legal defeats in its efforts to limit travel to the U.S. in the name of national security. Last month, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, held that the revised travel ban discriminates against Muslims in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Earlier this week, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit also upheld a freeze on the travel ban but declared in its reasoning that Trump had exceeded his authority to make national security judgments to change immigration law without adequate justification.

“The order does not offer a sufficient justification to suspend the entry of more than 180 million people on the basis of nationality,” the Ninth Circuit opinion said. “National security is not a ‘talismanic incantation’ that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power.”

If the Supreme Court decides to take up the case, it could grant the government’s request to stay the lower court rulings and allow the ban to go forward while it hears the case. Five justices would have to agree to grant a stay. While it weighs a decision on whether to hear the case, the Supreme Court earlier this week set a new briefing schedule ordering all parties in the case to have legal briefs filed by June 21. That will allow the justices to decide whether to take the case on their last scheduled day in this term on June 22. If the court takes the case, the justices could schedule a special sitting this summer to hear oral arguments or decide to hear the case next term, which starts in the fall.

This article was provided to OSAE by The Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.