The Supreme Court on Monday canceled scheduled oral arguments on President Donald Trump’s travel ban after the White House released new immigration standards that supersede it.
The new standards require countries to provide a baseline of security information to the United States before their citizens will be issued immigrant or non-immigrant visas. Most of the countries affected by the first ban are still affected, and Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea will see new restrictions.
The justices did not drop the pending case altogether, but asked both sides to file new briefs considering whether the changed circumstances would render the case moot.
“I think the court should and will dismiss the case as moot,” Stephen Legomsky of Washington University School of Law told USA Today. “The new proclamation changes both the factual and the legal issues.”
Although the new standards are based on foreign governments meeting baseline security requirements, opponents of the ban insist the newest ban is still an attack on Muslims.
“This has not changed anything about the road to the Supreme Court,” said Zahra Billoo of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “For us, this was a Muslim ban, and it remains a Muslim ban.”
New briefs on the updated travel ban case must be filed by Oct. 5.
