Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ dealt new blow
Khamenei accuses US of funding ISIS “lie”
ANOTHER US appeals court stomped on President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying the administration violated federal immigration law and failed to provide a valid reason for keeping people from six mostly Muslim nations from coming.
The decision by a unanimous three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals helps keep the travel ban blocked and deals Trump a second big legal defeat on the policy in less than three weeks.
The administration has appealed another ruling against the ban to the Supreme Court, which is likely to consider the cases in tandem. The White House said it is confident the high court will uphold Trump’s executive order.
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia last month cited the president’s campaign statements calling for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the US as evidence the 90-day ban was unconstitutionally “steeped in animus and directed at a single religious group”, rather than necessary for national security.
The 9th Circuit, which heard arguments in Seattle last month in Hawaii’s challenge to the ban, found no need to analyse Trump’s campaign statements. It ruled based on immigration law, not the Constitution.
“Immigration, even for the president, is not a oneperson show,” the judges said. “National security is not a ‘talismanic incantation’ that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power.”
Judges Michael Hawkins, Ronald Gould and Richard Paez - all appointed by President Bill Clinton — said the travel ban violated immigration law by discriminating against people based on their nationality when it comes to issuing visas and by failing to demonstrate their entry would hurt American interests.
The president’s order did not tie citizens of Iran, IRAN’S Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the United States for instability in the Middle East and said Washington’s fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was “a lie”.
“You [the United States] and your agents are the source of instability in the Middle East… Who created Islamic State? America . . . America’s claim of fighting against Islamic State is a lie,” Khamenei said on Monday in a meeting with high-ranking Iranian officials, according to his official website.
Iran and the United States cut diplomatic ties shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and enmity to Washington has long been a rallying point for hardline supporters of Khamenei in Iran.
Khamenei has made several statements denouncing the United States since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while US President Donald Trump has spoken out against Iran in harsh terms since taking office, indicating he will reverse the
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen to “terrorist organisations” or identify them as contributors to “active conflict”, the court said. It also did not provide any link between their nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism.
“In short, the order does not provide a rationale explaining why permitting entry of nationals from the six designated countries under current protocols would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” the ruling said.
The judges pointed to a June 6 tweet by Trump saying the order was aimed at “dangerous countries”. That helped demonstrate he was not assessing whether previous administration’s attempts at rapprochement with Tehran.
The Iranian leader has accused the United States and its regional ally Saudi Arabia of funding hardline groups, including ISIL, which carried out its first attack in Iran on Wednesday in Tehran, killing 17 people.
Riyadh has denied involvement in the suicide bombings and gun attacks on Iran’s parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who favours opening up to the world, has condemned the attacks, without pointing a finger at any country.
The pragmatist president championed a nuclear deal with the United States and five other powers in 2015 that led to the lifting of most sanctions against Iran, in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
the roughly 180 million citizens of the six countries had ties to terrorism, they said.
Because of the conflict with immigration law, the judges said they didn’t need to consider whether it also violated the Constitution’s prohibition on the government favouring or disfavouring any religion. The 4th Circuit found the policy unconstitutional on that basis.
Attorney-General Jeff Sessions denounced the ruling. “Recent attacks confirm that the threat to our nation is immediate and real. Certain countries shelter or sponsor terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, and we may be unable to obtain any reliable background —
But the deal has not led to normalisation of ties between the two countries that Rouhani hoped for. Trump has frequently called the agreement “one of the worst deals ever signed” and said Washington would review it.
Khamenei said Iran had no intention of normalising ties with the United States.
“The American government is against an independent Iran . . . They have problems with the existence of Islamic Republic of Iran… Most of our problems with them cannot be resolved,” the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
Khamenei’s hardline loyalists, drawn from among Islamists and the Revolutionary Guards, fear normalisation of ties with the United States might weaken their position.
“America is a terrorist country and backs terrorism . . . therefore, we cannot normalise ties with such a country,” he said. — AFP
information on individuals from these war-torn, failed states,” Sessions said in a statement.
Trump also criticised the ruling on Twitter, saying it came at a “dangerous time” in history.
“Frankly, I think any lawyer worth their salt 100 percent agrees that the president’s fully within his rights and his responsibilities to do what is necessary to protect the country,” spokesman Sean Spicer said.
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said the new ruling proved that “our system of checks and balances, enshrined in the Constitution for more than 225 years, remains in place”. — AFP