9th Circuit Sets Hearing for Trump's Revised Travel Ban

A federal appeals court has set a hearing next month to review President Trump's second travel ban.

After a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the President's orders, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to expedite the matter. The appellate court has agreed to hear arguments on May 15, 2017.

Trump's latest order revised a broader travel ban that the appeals court turned back in February. Rather than continue his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, Trump issued a second, narrower ban. But Hawaii sued, saying it was unconstitutional just like the first one.

"We cannot fault the president for being politically incorrect, but we do fault him for being constitutionally incorrect," said state Attorney General Douglas Chin.

Muslim Nations Banned Again

The second ban targets all refugees and people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen who are not also U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the country. After the first order was found to be an unconstitutional ban against people from predominantly Muslim nations, the second order attempts to avoid the religious controversy.

However, the controversy will not likely go away so long as the same Muslim nations are being targeted by the President. Trump made Muslims the issue during his campaign for the White House, although there is some controversy even within the appeals court on that issue.

Meanwhile, civil rights advocates have praised the courts for standing up to the President. Omar Jadwat, director of the Immigrants' Rights Project at the ACLU, said the law should be fair to all people.

"There's obviously more litigation to come, but this is truly good news for the many people both in this country and abroad who have been unfairly targeted on the basis of their religion by this ban," he said.

"Watered Down Version"

On the other hand, Trump has consistently criticized the judges who have ruled against him. He said the second ban is a "watered down" version of his first order and decried the judge for "unprecedented judicial overreach."

"The order he blocked was a watered down version of the first order that was also blocked by another judge that should have never been blocked to start with," he said at rally following the defeat. "This new order was tailored to the dictates of the Ninth circuit's, in my opinion, flawed ruling."

The appeals court will hear more Trump arguments soon enough.

Related Resources:

• A Federal Appeals Court Will Examine Trump's Revised Travel Ban in May (Time)
• Temporary Bar on Trump's New Travel Ban Is Now Much Less Temporary (FindLaw's U.S. Ninth Circuit Blog)
• Ninth Circuit Splinters Over Trump Travel Ban Rehearing (FindLaw's U.S. Ninth Circuit Blog)