The Ninth Circuit has joined the Fourth Circuit in upholding the injunction against Pres. Trump’s travel ban. The unanimous three-judge decision found that of the six countries identified in the ban, none had ever posed a risk to the United States. I wrote about the Fourth Circuit’s recent decision here. The Ninth Circuit pointed to the same two travel bans. But, the Ninth Circuit did not devote as much attention to Pres. Trump’s statements about the travel bans. The opinion notes the complete lack of a link between the nationality of the six countries and any terrorist organization. The second travel ban points to no link between those persons seeking entry to this country and any unsettled conditions in those six countries. In short, the second travel ban did not provide any basis foe a complete ban on travel from those six countries. The court did point to a statement by Pres. Trump on June 5 in a tweet that he was concerned with the six countries themselves, not the 180 million persons living in those six countries. Slip opinion, p. 40 n.14.
The President tweeted: “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 court noted that Sean Spicer has said the President’s tweets represent official U.S. policy.
It also cited the 1965 statute, the immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which prohibits discrimination against any one nationality in the country’s immigration policies. That act specifically provides that no preference on immigration will be based on “nationality.” See 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1157. See the decision in Hawaii v. Trump, No. 17-00050 (9th Cir. 6/12/2017) here.
And, of course, the next day, the President continued his assault on the judiciary by suggesting the Ninth Circuit was not concerned with national security. See Politico report about his tweet.