The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate Trump's temporary ban on nationals from six majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S., reports The Washington Post.
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 Trump’s revised ban.
Last week, a Virginia-based federal appeals court refused to reinstate Trump’s ban.
Following that 10-3 ruling, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that the Justice Department "strongly disagrees with the decision" and would "seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court."
The government’s filing late Thursday asks the justices to set aside the 4th Circuit ruling and accept the case for oral arguments, according to The Washington Post. 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.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said that the administration is “confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism.”
“The President is not required to admit people from countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism, until he determines that they can be properly vetted and do not pose a security risk to the United States.”
The order that was blocked was an updated order blocking citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Iraqi citizens, covered by an initial ban announced by Trump, will be allowed to travel to the United States under the new order.
The order is temporary, until proper vetting procedures – a central campaign promise of Trump’s – can be implemented.
Trump’s first order was blocked last month by a federal judge in Washington state. The block was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trump has denounced judicial decisions freezing the ban as unprecedented assaults on his power to fulfill his most important role, keeping the nation safe.
It would take the votes of five of the nine justices to grant the government’s request, and require a finding that the government was likely to prevail on the merits of its argument.