Trump travel ban dealt blow by San Francisco appeals court
SAN FRANCISCO — President Donald Trump’s restrictions on travel to the U.S. from six mostly Muslim countries, Venezuela and North Korea were largely struck down by a federal appeals court, raising uncertainty as the fight heads for a final showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court.
A regional appeals court based in San Francisco, one of two panels reviewing the third version of the president’s travel ban, concluded Friday that it continues to illegally discriminate against travelers just as earlier executive orders did. The threejudge panel also ruled, however, that Trump can continue to bar or limit entry by people from the Mideast and North African nations if they don’t have a relationship with a U.S.-based person or institution.
The nation’s high court signaled on Dec. 5 that it may ultimately uphold the restrictions that were issued in September when it allowed them to temporarily take full effect while the litigation play out. But there’s no guarantee the justices will allow the administration to enforce the ban indefinitely after scrutinizing it more thoroughly.
“For the third time, we are called upon to assess the legality of the president’s efforts to bar over 150 million nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States or being issued immigrant visas that they would ordinarily be qualified to receive,” according to the panel, all of whose judges were appointed by President Bill Clinton. “We conclude that the president’s issuance of the proclamation once again exceeds the scope of his delegated authority.”