Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Trump Set to Appeal Rejection of Latest Travel Ban

The Trump administration will appeal the latest judicial block of the president’s travel ban, according to papers filed in federal court.

(CN) – The Trump administration will appeal the latest judicial block of the president’s travel ban, according to papers filed in federal court.

The Justice Department gave notice of its intent to appeal U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson’s recently imposed preliminary injunction on the third version of the President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The appeal will be heard by the Ninth Circuit, which has heard appeals relating to injunctions of the previous two versions of the executive order, both times upholding injunctions of the orders.

Trump had sought to bar travelers from six Muslim-majority nations plus North Korea and certain officials from Venezuela from entering the United States for an indefinite period before Watson awarded the state of Hawaii the injunction hours before the ban was to take effect.

Iran, Syria, Somalia, Chad, Yemen and Libya made up the targeted nations in the third version, with Chad taking Sudan’s place from the second edition.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin argued in court that the third version of the travel ban was the same thinly veiled attack on the Muslim religion and violated the U.S. Constitution along with sections of U.S. immigration law.

Watson said earlier this month that Hawaii had enough of a likelihood of prevailing on its claims of being unduly harmed by the travel ban that an injunction was warranted.

The White House called Watson’s decision “deeply flawed” and said this version of the ban was carved out after diligent study of the immigration and national security policies of more than 150 countries around the world.

Chin and other organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union said the study was simply a guise to justify what is essentially an unconstitutional attack against residents from the six Muslim-majority nations.

The appeal comes on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court formally dismissed the appeal of the previous travel ban case, which it was scheduled to hear in early October.

“Because those provisions of the order have ‘expired by [their] own terms,’ the appeal no longer presents a ‘live case or controversy,’” the court said in a summary disposition order issued Tuesday morning.

Days before oral argument was slated to begin for the second version of the travel ban, the Trump administration announced its third iteration.

Many legal analysts said at the time that the inclusion of North Korea and Venezuela could thwart potential legal challenges that cited the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. But Watson’s injunction involved only the parts the third travel ban dealing with the Muslim-majority nations, allowing the parts relating to Venezuela and North Korea to stay in place.

If the Ninth Circuit affirms Watson’s decision, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely get the case again.

Follow @@MatthewCRenda
Categories / Appeals, Civil Rights, Government

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...