Ninth Circuit affirms the TRO on Trump's Muslim Ban

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the ruling of U.S. District Judge James Robart on Thursday, determining that the freeze on President Trump's immigration order will be maintained. This means that for now, previously barred refugees and citizens from the countries that fell under the ban will be allowed to enter the United States. The Justice Department could now ask that the Supreme Court intervene on the matter. However at the moment, the Supreme Court is a justice short which could result in a tie meaning that the ruling of the lower court would be maintained.


Judge Michelle Taryn Friedland, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, asked a Justice Department lawyer if the government had “pointed to any evidence connecting these countries with terrorism.”

Judge Richard Clifton, a President George W. Bush appointee, noted that the government already had processes in place to screen people coming from those countries and asked, “Is there any reason for us to think that there’s a real risk or that circumstances have changed such that there’s a real risk?”

“The president determined that there was a real risk,” responded the August E. Flentje, the Justice Department lawyer.

Washington state Solicitor General Noah Purcell asserted that reinstating the ban would “throw the country back into chaos,” and he pleaded with judges to maintain the status quo of the past several days. He asserted that Trump’s order was intentionally discriminatory, pointing to public statements from Trump and his allies as evidence.

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, for example, recently said: “So when [Trump] first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said: ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’ ” On the campaign trail, Trump himself called for a “complete and total shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S.

Federal immigration law undeniably gives the president broad authority to bar people from coming into the U.S., stating that if the president finds “the entry of any aliens” would be “detrimental” to the country’s interests, he can impose restrictions. But lawsuits across the country have alleged that Trump’s particular order ran afoul of the Constitution in that it intentionally disfavored Muslims



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