Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he will petition the Supreme Court to review the legality of President Trump’s travel ban.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday to keep the block of Trump’s travel ban, enacted via a second executive order. Sessions said the second executive order is “well within [Trump’s] lawful authority” to keep the country safe.
“The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the decision of the divided court, which blocks the president’s efforts to strengthen this country’s national security,” Sessions said in a statement reacting to the appeals court’s ruling.
“This Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the power and duty of the executive branch to protect the people of this country from danger, and will seek review of this case in the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va., explained its 10-3 decision to keep the blockade of the ban as necessary, partly because a provision of the new order “likely violates the Establishment Clause.”
“Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute,” the court wrote in its opinion. “It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation.”
Trump’s second executive order prevents nationals of six Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — from entering the United States for 90 days. A district court judge in Maryland blocked the provision of the newest order that applies to foreign citizens from those six countries, and the government subsequently appealed the decision to the appeals court.
Litigation regarding the travel ban also remains pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the West Coast.
