The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to reinstate the ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, a bill that has been repeatedly blocked in the lower courts.
The Department of Justice filed a request to the Supreme Court Thursday in a final bid to push forward the order banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.
The document argues that a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, made several errors last week when it upheld a federal judge’s decision to block the executive order.
“The President is not required to admit people from countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism, until he determines that they can be properly vetted and do not pose a security risk to the United States”, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, adding that Trump’s executive order “is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe”.
Back in January, Trump signed an executive order banning travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, as well as Iraq, for 90 days, which triggered panic, chaos and protests at airports across the US and the Middle East.
A week following its introduction, the ban was blocked by several federal courts, leading the Trump administration to revise it. The updated ban then removed Iraq from the list of affected countries and removed an indefinite ban on Syrian migrants. That ban was also blocked before it could go into effect, first by a district court in Maryland and then by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
The Richmond court said that it “remained unconvinced” that the naming of specific countries had “more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the president’s promised Muslim ban.”
The court concluded that challengers of the order would likely succeed on their claim that it unconstitutionally favored or disfavored a particular religion.
“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,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said.
The White House also filed an application to the Supreme Court seeking to suspend the US’ refugee program for 120 days, another aspect of the original policy that was blocked by a federal judge in the state of Hawaii.
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