Washington(June 13): The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously upheld an earlier decision by a federal judge in Hawaii to block the government from enforcing Trump’s executive order.
A trio of federal appellate judges in San Francisco on Monday ruled against Donald Trump’s second try at imposing a “travel ban” that would restrict refugees and people from six Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is yet another stinging loss from a court that similarly refused to reinstate Trump’s original executive order on travel in February. “We conclude that the President, in issuing the Executive Order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress,” the three judges wrote.
“Immigration, even for the President, is not a one-person show.” The judges cited Trump’s latest tweets in the travel ban saga. “That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people!” Trump tweeted on June 5.
That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017
“Indeed, the President recently confirmed his assessment that it is the ‘countries’ that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the President’s ‘travel ban,'” the judge wrote.
They also cited White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s confirmation that the President’s tweets are “considered official statements by the President of the United States.”
The judges largely affirmed US District Court Judge Derrick Watson’s decision from March which found the core provisions of the revised executive order — temporarily blocking all refugees and foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US — likely violated the Constitution because its primary purpose was to disfavor Muslims, but on slightly different grounds.
