Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Trump takes battle over travel ban to high court; asks justices to reinstate

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WASHINGTON — Presi- dent Donald Trump’s administra­tion asked the U.S. Supreme Court to immediatel­y reinstate his stalled travel ban, aiming to reverse a string of courtroom losses and setting up the biggest legal showdown of his young presidency.

Department of Justice lawyers asked the court to overturn a decision of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that kept in place a freeze on Mr. Trump's revised ban.

The request puts a Trump initiative before the Supreme Court for the first time and brings the nine justices into a national drama over claims that the president is targeting Muslims and abusing his authority. The case will give the first indication­s of how Chief Justice John Roberts’ court will approach one of the most controvers­ial presidents in the nation’s history.

Mr. Trump is asking the court to hear arguments on an expedited basis and to reinstate the executive order in the interim.

The government’s filing late Thursday asks the justices to set aside the 4th Circuit ruling and accept the case for oral arguments. It also asks the high court to lift a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in a separate Hawaii case. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers Hawaii, heard the government’s arguments in that case last month, but has not yet ruled.

At issue is Mr. Trump’s executive order temporaril­y barring entry into the U.S. by people from six predominan­tly Muslim countries in an effort to protect the country from terrorists. The administra­tion asked the court to let the ban take effect while the justices decide whether to review a lower court ruling that said the policy was “steeped in animus and directed at a single religious group.”

As a practical matter, the request for immediate action could determine the fate of the policy, given that the ban would be in effect only for 90 days.

The court acts on such requests based on the legal papers without hearing arguments.

The Virginia-based federal appeals court voted 10-3 to uphold a nationwide halt to the policy, saying the travel ban was driven by unconstitu­tional religious motivation­s. The majority pointed to Mr. Trump’s campaign vow to bar Muslims from entering the country and to the special preference for religious minorities included in an earlier version of the ban.

Comey slated to testify

James Comey, fired last month as FBI director amid a federal investigat­ion into connection­s between Russia and the Trump campaign, is set to testify next week at a congressio­nal hearing that could shed light on his private conversati­ons with the president before his dismissal.

The Senate intelligen­ce

committee on Thursday announced Mr. Comey’s appearance, and a Comey associate said he had been cleared to testify by Robert Mueller, another former FBI director now overseeing that investigat­ion as special counsel.

Also on Thursday, two Democratic senators — Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Al Franken of Minnesota — disclosed that they had asked Mr. Comey to open intoa criminal whether investigat­ionAttorne­y General Jeff Sessions perjured himself when he falsely said at his confirmati­on hearing that he “did not have communicat­ions with the Russians” last year.

In fact, Mr. Sessions met at least twice in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independen­ce Party, ridiculed a published report Thursday that suggests U.S. investigat­ors think he may be able to shed light on any possible collusion between Russia and representa­tives of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Debt-ceiling collision

The Trump administra­tion is rejecting a push from some conservati­ves to stop paying certain bills on time, instead adopting the Obama administra­tion’s argument that the U.S. government failing to make payments of any kind would risk a global financial crisis.

At issue is the country’s looming collision with the debt ceiling, a legal limit on how much the Treasury Department is allowed to borrow to keep paying the country’s bills.

Federal data and anecdotes from tax advisers reveal that a significan­t number of taxpayers — wealthy Americans and business owners, in particular — are postponing cashing out on investment­s and other financial decisions, hoping to pay less later if the White House and congressio­nal Republican­s pass a huge reduction in tax rates.

Unmasking probe

Rep. Devin Nunes, RCalif., beleaguere­d head of the House Intelligen­ce Committee Wednesday appeared to have launched an investigat­ion of his own, this one into allegation­s that senior Obama administra­tion administra­tion officials — former CIA director John Brennan, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former U.S. representa­tive to the United Nations Samantha Power — improperly “unmasked” the identities of Trump associates captured communicat­ing with foreign officials.

Worldwide protest

Protests are expected Saturday in over 100 cities around the world to call for an independen­t and impartial investigat­ion into alleged connection­s between Mr. Trump’s presidenti­al campaign and Russia.

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