What did the court consider?

In denying the motion for stay, the court said it was considering whether the administration was likely to win its appeal, whether suspending the travel ban had harmed the government, and whether the public interest favoured granting the stay or rejecting it.

The judges agreed that the lower court’s ruling was appealable — the only question on which the states lost. They rejected the DOJ’s argument that the states lacked standing to sue, noting that some faculty members at state universities were unable to travel, for example.

But most forcibly, they rejected the DOJ’s notion that the president has nearly unlimited authority over immigration decisions.

“There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy,” the opinion said.