Supremes OK Trump refugee ban, for now

The Supreme Court on Monday granted a request from the Trump administration and temporarily blocked a federal appeals court’s ruling that placed restrictions on the president’s travel ban.

In a one-page decision signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the high court halted a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week that prohibited the government from barring entrance to refugees who had been offered help by a US-based resettlement agency.

Kennedy’s order puts the San Francisco-based appeals court’s ruling on hold until the parties challenging the ban can submit written arguments to the court by Tuesday afternoon.

In its emergency request to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said the appeals court’s decision “will disrupt the status quo and frustrate orderly implementation of the order’s refugee provisions.”

The lower court’s decision, which would apply to about 24,000 refugees, could have taken effect as early as Tuesday.

This interim order is separate from President Trump’s temporary ban on visitors from six mostly Muslim countries — Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The Supreme Court in June allowed that ban to continue while it considers arguments over whether the action is constitutional. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

But the justices said the ban couldn’t include people who have a “bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” They did not specify which relationships qualified.

The Trump administration interpreted it to mean parents, children, spouses, siblings, parents-inlaw and sons- and daughters-inlaw but not grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins.

A federal judge in Hawaii found the administration had defined the relationship too narrowly.

“Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents,” Judge Derrick Watson wrote in July. “Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government’s definition excludes them. That simply cannot be.”

The 9th Circuit Court upheld that decision.

The administration did not challenge that aspect of the ban.

Trump’s travel restrictions from the mainly Muslim countries have been caught up in the courts since he implemented his first executive order in January.

Airports erupted in chaos as visitors to the United States were detained and some even pulled from planes as immigration advocates led protests across the country.

Opponents challenged the order in court, saying that it was unconstitutional and that the president overstepped his executive authority.