Campaign rhetoric again central to travel ban arguments

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments today in Hawaii’s challenge to President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries. As their counterparts on the 4th Circuit did last week, judges today focused on Trump’s campaign pledge to block all Muslims from entering the United States. Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the court the president’s executive order doesn’t have anything to do with religion—and never mentions it—but is designed to target “Islamic terrorist groups and the countries that sponsor or shelter them.” Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland blocked the travel ban earlier this year. The 9th Circuit ruled against Trump’s first version of the travel ban, and rather than appeal, Trump opted to craft a new version. Courts used essentially the same reasoning to block the second order as they did to stymie the first. No matter how either the 4th or 9th Circuits rule, the travel ban case is expected to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.