The fate of Donald Trump’s xenophobic travel ban will be decided upon by the Supreme Court, as the administration brings its case asking for the ban to be reinstated while the court considers its legality.
This news comes in the wake of a decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to keep the existing ban on the revised version of this executive order, ABC News reports. The 4th Circuit’s last-minute decision upholds that of US District Court Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, who ruled in March that Trump’s plan to restrict immigration from six Muslim-majority countries was unconstitutional and therefore banned indefinitely. In last week’s decision keeping the ban on the travel ban in place, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory called it a “post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement released Thursday night:
“We have asked the Supreme Court to hear this important case and are confident that President Trump’s exectuive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the Nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism. 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.”
In a presidency that has been beset with disaster upon disaster, the rollout of the travel ban was one of the most glaring. Introduced seven days after the inauguration to uproarious disapproval, it was quickly struck down in lower courts after a tense weekend of protests and mass confusion. Per Politico, Trump agreed to drop the issue and not take it to the Supreme Court. But maybe the grumpy toddler in the ill-fitting suit needs a victory to offset the tidal wave of bad press and failure heaped upon him by his own incompetency, which brings us right up to the present. Trump will need the votes of five justices to see his nightmarish vision through.
DISCUSSION
I think I’d enjoy it more if SCOTUS refused to even grant cert (after all, no dispute among the circuits) than if it issued a crushing opinion affirming the 4th circuit.