Trump travel ban on shaky ground
President Trump’s travel ban faces an uncertain future.
Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban was supposed to avoid the legal challenges faced by his first travel ban. But the latest iteration of the executive order has itself been blocked in several courts, with the latest attack coming in a public rebuke from a Richmond-based federal appeals court.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals not only refused to reinstate Trump’s temporary ban on nationals from six majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States, but also dressed down the government in its decision for asking the court to "blindly refer to executive power" and uphold an order that "drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination."
The administration is now waiting for a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, with court watchers saying that the chances of Trump prevailing in a court that ruled against his first order are slim to none.
The Department of Justice has already announced its plan to appeal to the Supreme Court, but even conservatives aren’t sure the court will take the case without a lower circuit court split. Only one court, a Virginia district court, upheld Trump’s revised order.
“If the 9th Circuit issues an opinion and there’s no circuit split, there’s the distinct possibility the court will decide not to take the case,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston and a member of the conservative Federalist Society.
http://thehill.com/regulation/335359-trump-travel-ban-on-shaky-ground