President Trump sought to reinstate his ban on travellers from some majority Muslim countries last night as he filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The White House is asking the highest court in the country to rule on the legal standing of the ban that caused widespread protests when it was introduced by executive order in January.
“We have asked the Supreme Court to hear this important case and are confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism,” the Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement released shortly before midnight in Washington.
She added: “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.”
Mr Trump’s original travel ban — covering Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen — was blocked less than a week after it was introduced. The order, dubbed a “Muslim ban”, denied entry for 90 days and suspended the nation’s refugee programme for 120 days. Judges across the country sided with human rights groups claiming that the ban was discriminatory.
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The president signed a revised order in March barring new visas for people from all of those countries except Iraq. Indefinite restrictions on Syrian refugees were also lifted, but a district court judge in Maryland issued another nationwide block. The decision was upheld by an appeals court, which found the ban to be unconstitutional. The court said it “remained unconvinced” that Mr Trump’s order had “more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the president’s promised Muslim ban”.
The White House’s latest challenge, filed to the Supreme Court last night, claims that the decision by judges to block the order raises concerns about the government’s authority.
“The stakes are indisputably high — the court of appeals concluded that the president acted in bad faith with religious animus when, after consulting with three members of his cabinet, he placed a brief pause on entry from six countries that present heightened risks of terrorism,” the filing reads.
“The court’s decision creates uncertainty about the president’s authority to meet those threats as the constitution and acts of Congress empower and obligate him to do.”
During his election campaign Mr Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. When he introduced his original ban in January it provoked a chain reaction of spontaneous protests at airports across the US.
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The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the legal groups to challenge the ban through the courts, tweeted last night: “We’ve beat this hateful ban and are ready to do it again.”
Mr Trump will need five of the nine Supreme Court judges to vote in his favour to have the ban reinstated. The court has a 5-4 conservative majority after Neil Gorsuch was nominated by Mr Trump this year.