08/31/2017

Ninth Circuit Hears Arguments on Travel Ban

A three-judge panel heard oral arguments this week on how the travel ban

Judges on a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel sounded highly skeptical August 28 of the Trump administration’s efforts to deny grandparents an exemption from President Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order.

A three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments this week on how the travel ban can be implemented while affected parties await a decision by the Supreme Court this fall on the constitutionality of the order.

The Supreme Court in June voted to allow the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect, except in cases where foreign nationals have a “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity in the U.S. The Trump administration interpreted the ruling to cover immediate family but not grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles.

The high court’s opinion had given Trump at least a partial victory following a series of unfavorable lower court rulings that had blocked the ban for months. The court said in that June opinion that it will rule on the merits of the challenge to the travel ban in the fall.

This week, all three judges on the Ninth Circuit panel sounded incredulous that the administration is interpreting the Supreme Court’s carve-out to exclude grandparents.

“How can the government take the position that a grandmother or a grandfather or aunt or uncle of a child in the U.S. does not have a close familial relationship?” Judge Ronald Gould asked at the hearing. “Like, what universe does that come from?”

Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppan acknowledged that many people consider their grandparents as “close” relatives, but that is not necessarily what the Supreme Court intended when it established an exemption allowing some people to avoid the travel ban directive.

Mooppan suggested that a narrower interpretation of “close familial relationship” is easier for the government to administer and has better support in existing immigration laws.

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