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REUTERS
WASHINGTON
THE FATE of President Donald Trump's order to ban travelers from six predominantly Muslim nations, blocked by federal courts, may soon be in the hands of the conservative-majority Supreme Court, where his appointee Neil Gorsuch could help settle the matter.
After the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined on Thursday to lift a Maryland federal judge's injunction halting the temporary ban ordered by Trump on March 6, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration would appeal to the Supreme Court.
A second regional federal appeals court heard arguments on May 15 in Seattle in the administration's appeal of a decision by a federal judge in Hawaii also to block the ban. A ruling by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals is pending.
The Justice Department has not made clear when the administration would make its formal appeal or whether it would wait for the 9th Circuit ruling before appealing.
If they take it up, the justices would be called upon to decide whether courts should always defer to the president over allowing certain people to enter the country, especially when national security is the stated reason for an action as in this case. They also would have to decide if Trump's order violated the U.S. Constitution's bar against the government favoring one religion over another, as the ban's challengers assert.
Gorsuch's April confirmation by the Republican-led Senate over Democratic opposition restored the court's 5-4 majority, which means that if all the conservative justices side with the administration the ban would be restored regardless of how the four liberal justices vote.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Gorsuch was questioned about Trump's criticism of judges who ruled against the ban. Gorsuch avoided commenting on the legal issue, saying only that he would not be"rubber stamp"for any president.
While the justices could decide in the coming weeks whether to hear the case, they likely would not hold oral arguments until late in the year, with a ruling sometime after that. A final resolution may not come until perhaps a year after Trump issued the executive order.
