Injunction against Trump travel ban upheld by appeals court

A second U.S. appeals court on Monday ruled against President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban on people entering the United States from six Muslim-majority countries, largely upholding a lower court's decision.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was reviewing a March ruling by a Hawaii-based federal judge that blocked parts of Trump's order. The court upheld the block on Trump's travel ban and a cap on refugees but vacated
part of the injunction in order to allow the government to conduct internal reviews on vetting.

The ruling came after a separate court, the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on May 25 upheld a Maryland judge's ruling blocking parts of the order.

Trump's administration on June 1 filed emergency applications with the nine Supreme Court justices seeking to undo Hawaii and Virginia court rulings that blocked the order barring entry for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days while the U.S. government implements stricter visa screening. The administration has said the order is needed to prevent terrorism in the United States.

• Trump removes doubt: it's a travel ban, and he wants it now
• Homeland Security downplays threat from nations in travel ban

In deciding whether to allow the ban to go into effect, the Supreme Court is set to weigh whether Trump's comments as a presidential candidate can be used as evidence that the executive order was intended to discriminate against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment ban on the government favouring one religion over another.

Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

Supreme Court deadline

Meanwhile, Monday is the deadline for the ban's challengers to respond to the administration's request that the order be allowed to go into effect.

The state of Hawaii on Monday urged Supreme Court not to grant the Trump administration's emergency request seeking to revive his plan.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents people challenging the ban in a separate Maryland case, is due to file its own response later on Monday.

• Revised executive order removes Iraq from list of countries

Hawaii's court papers mentioned a series of Twitter posts that Trump wrote on June 5, after the administration sought Supreme Court intervention. Trump described the order, which replaced an earlier Jan. 27 order that also was blocked by courts, as a "watered down, politically correct" version of his original plan.

Hawaii's lawyers said that Trump has made "a series of barely veiled statements linking the orders to his promised Muslim ban." If he had not done so, the order may not violate the Constitution, the lawyers said.

The court could act on the administration's request as soon as later this week.