Trump Calls for Expedited Travel Ban Hearing

President Donald Trump called for an expedited Supreme Court hearing on the travel ban, as well as offered criticism of the revised version, in a series of tweets released over the weekend and Monday morning.

In a series of tweets President Trump called the revised version “watered down” and “politically correct,” and said that the Justice Department should have stayed with the original version.

 

According to an analysis in the Washington Post, the comments could undermine the ban’s legal status by suggesting that religion was an element of the original order. Lawyers for the Trump administration had argued that President Trump’s comments during the presidential campaign calling for a “Muslim ban” had no connection to the travel restrictions. In the latest ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, however, judges found that the evidence created a “compelling case that (the executive order's) primary purpose is religious.”

According to Politico, the comments seem to be prompted in part by this weekend’s terrorist attack in London, killing seven people and injuring 48 others.

The Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court for a hearing on the revised travel ban last Thursday, as well as for stays on the two injunctions that had been granted against the ban. Should the request for the stay be granted, the revised travel ban would go into effect immediately. The court first has to decide on whether to grant the emergency applications, however, which could happen within two weeks. Then it would have to decide whether or not to hear the full appeal. The Justice Department has asked to expedite the case, which would allow the court to hear it at the start of its next term in October – meaning any decision would not take place until after the temporary, 90-day ban has elapsed.

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