Trump’s Travel Ban Has Been Blocked — Again

U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban has been hit with another blow as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction Monday against the ban, meaning that the executive order will remain blocked.

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The revised ban, which bars travel to the United States from six predominantly Muslim countries, was questioned by judges Michael Hawkins, Ronald Gould and Richard Paez for lying outside the scope of federal statutes and laws.

“Further, the Order runs afoul of other provisions of the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) that prohibit nationality-based discrimination and require the president to follow a specific process when setting the annual cap on the admission of refugees,” the published decision read. “On these statutory bases, we affirm in large part the district court’s order preliminarily enjoying Sections 2 and 6 of the Executive Order.”

The decision cited Trump’s tweets, which it said are “considered official statements by the president of the United States,” noting that press secretary Sean Spicer had once pressed the same.

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“Indeed, the president recently confirmed his assessment (in tweets) that it is the ‘countries’ that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the president’s ‘travel ban,'” it read.

Trump tweeted on June 5, "That's right, we need a travel ban for certain dangerous countries, not some politically correct term that won't help us protect our people!"

The ban will now head to the U.S. Supreme Court, where lawyers will weigh whether Trump's comments as a presidential candidate can be used as evidence that the executive order was intended to discriminate against Muslims, violating the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

The state of Hawaii, which along with Maryland suspended key rulings of the ban, urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday not to revive the executive order.

Lawyers for Hawaii, who were responsible for winning the nationwide injunction blocking the order, said in court papers that Trump’s executive order is a "thinly veiled Muslim ban."