4th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Injunction blocking Trump’s Travel Ban

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — A Virginia appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on nationals from six Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S., another example of the president’s own Justice Department delivering another major blow to his administration.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in its 10-3 ruling, said that Trump’s executive order “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”

In delivering the opinion, Judge Roger Gregory wrote Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute. “It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the President wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation,” he wrote.

In addition to its discriminatory nature, the court found Trump’s order would delay and disrupt pending visa applications. Because of the 4th Circuit’s ruling, a Maryland court’s previous order blocking the ban will stay in place.

The government’s appeal of that order was heard by the court’s full panel of 13 judges.

Though Judge Stephanie Thacker concurred with the court’s decision to keep the stay in place, she said she would have not have considered the remarks Trump made about banning Muslims while on the campaign trail.

“While on the campaign trail, a non-incumbent presidential candidate has not yet taken the oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ and may speak to a host of promises merely to curry favor with the electorate,” she said.

“Once a candidate becomes President, however, the Constitution vests that individual with the awesome power of the executive office while simultaneously imposing constraints on that power.”

In a dissenting opinion which Judges Dennis Shedd and Steven Agee joined, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the lower court “fabricated a new proposition of law — indeed, a new rule — that provides for the consideration of campaign statements to recast a later-issued executive order.”

The Justice Department announced Thursday it will ask the Supreme Court to review the court order blocking the revised travel ban. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the administration “strongly disagrees” with a federal court’s decision to keep the order in place, calling the travel ban “a constitutional exercise of the President’s duty to protect our communities from terrorism.”

Sessions said the department will seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court.