A federal appeals court this week upheld a lower court’s decision to temporarily block key parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order that banned travel from some Middle East and African countries.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the decision that the executive order "in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination."
Gregory said that the president has the power to restrict entry, but “that power is not absolute.”
"It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the President wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation," Gregory writes.
But the White House responded Thursday that they “"will seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court."
"This Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the power and duty of the Executive Branch to protect the people of this country from danger," read the department's statement.
The White House wrote in a statement that it needs "every available tool at our disposal to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and committing acts of bloodshed and violence."
Trump’s revised executive order on traveling limited immigration and travel to United States, but in February the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a bid for an emergency stay from the Department of Justice after the Washington state federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s original executive order.
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Publication date: May 26, 2017
