WASHINGTON: In yet another twist in the ongoing battle over US President Donald Trump’s so branded “Muslim ban,” A San Francisco based US appeals court has rejected an emergency motion the Trump administration made to immediately reinstate the executive order which had been blocked by a federal judge on Friday.
The decision comes from the Ninth circuit of the US Court of Appeal and means that the ban will remain in place over the weekend and no further action would be taken until at least Monday. The ruling comes in response to the filing of an emergency motion by the US Justice Department aimed at unfreezing the ban Trump had recently signed into law through executive order.
The ban, which had been aimed at barring from entry travellers and immigrants from seven majority Muslim countries, had earlier been blocked by a Federal Judge in Seattle: US District Judge James Robart, an appointee of former Republican President George. W. Bush. The federal judge in Seattle had ruled against the government lawyers’ claims that states did not have the standing to challenge President Trump’s executive order. The Justice had described the ban as “unconstitutional,” Siding with state lawyers who had argued that the ban was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The Attorney General of Washington, who had filed the petition towards overruling the ‘Muslim ban’ had said “Not everybody may like this decision – I’m certain the president will not like this decision.” The President, in turn, responded characteristically, calling Judge Robart’s credentials into question in a livid twitter tirade, referring to him as “so called judge.” Mr. Trump immediately began looking towards the Court of Appeal, confidently declaring “We’ll win. For the sake of the country we’ll win.”
The San Francisco Court, however, had different ideas. Although a final decision has not been taken regarding the matter, the Justice Department’s plea for emergency action has been rejected. The late night order stated that “Appellants’ request for an immediate administrative stay pending full consideration of the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is denied.” This means that the scuffle between the two organs of state could go on for days before reaching a resolution.
The State department had claimed before this that at least 60,000 people had their visas revoked as a result of the ban while a Justice Department lawyer had estimated the figure to be closer to around 100,000. The ban had wrecked havoc throughout the US with protesters taking to the streets and airport becoming unmanageable.
The political fallout that President Trump has received from the ban has been enormous and the continued legal battles tangled in judicial and constitutional technicalities do not send a favourable message towards his campaign promises of being an ‘outsider’ that would ‘get things done.’