ORAL ARGUMENT SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 10
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 11, 2017) — U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday temporarily upheld the Trump administration’s request to restrict refugees from entering the U.S. in response to Thursday’s ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, The New York Times reported.
The Ninth Circuit had opined that the Trump administration’s executive order, intended to curb the flow of individuals from countries known for terrorism until applicants for visas and potential refugees could be better vetted, was “unconstitutionally vague” and that relatives other than spouses and children should be allowed to enter.
With Kennedy’s ruling, would-be visitors to the U.S. from six countries will not be given visas, and refugee status to anyone is suspended.
Oral argument is scheduled for October 10 on other challenges to Trump’s March 6 order.
The appellate court extended that opinion to refugees who were promised resettlement assistance by a U.S. agency and stated that Trump exceeded the authority granted by Congress by existing immigration legislation.
Trump claimed to have the authority to limit or exclude anyone from entering the U.S., citing “8 U.S.C. § 1101 et. seq.“
The executive order of March 9 revised a January 27 order stayed by the Ninth Circuit after the states of Washington and Minnesota sued the administration, claiming they would likely suffer “irreparable harm” if visa applicants from the seven Middle-Eastern nations identified were barred from entering the country.
In June, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed to uphold the revised order in large part, which reduced the number of nations named to six and had been challenged by the state of Hawaii on March 15. In its order, the high court did not clarify the meaning of persons with a “bona fide” relationship which it said should be allowed to enter if already granted a visa.
In a statement, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin expressed that his state is “special” and particularly welcoming to foreigners, Fox News reported, with Chin citing the statistic that one-fifth of the state’s population is “foreign born.”
The Trump administration did not ask the court to weigh in on whether or not grandparents and other non-immediate relatives should be included in the more recent executive order’s provisions.
The nine-member Supreme Court decision was issued shortly after their three-month recess began on July 1.
Kennedy’s temporary upholding of the pause in refugee admissions came as the U.S. commemorated the 16th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in Washington, DC; Shanksville, PA, and New York City in which nearly 3,000 people, some of whom were foreigners, were killed by a plot carried out by 19 Islamic terrorists.
Most were from Saudi Arabia, which is a not a country on the “travel ban” list.
On September 11, 2012, four Americans were killed and at least ten others injured in a terrorist attack at a CIA compound in Benghazi, Libya which the Obama regime originally and erroneously blamed on an obscure internet video.
The Ninth Circuit’s ruling last week received broad coverage, while today’s news thus far has not.
