On Tuesday, the judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing on whether President Trump’s refugee and travel ban executive order should be frozen while its legality is still being determined, according to BuzzFeed News. The judges were skeptical of the Justice Department’s arguments, to say the least.
Historically, the executive branch usually has a ton of space when it comes to immigration policies, but this ban just isn’t going to make it through that easily.
There are a lot of big issues at stake here. First, we’re all wondering whether the motives of this ban are fueled by religious discrimination. And then we get an even stickier situation when it comes down questioning the legality of this ban, which is preventing it from getting the green light from all three branches of government.
August Flentje, from the Justice Department, insisted that this is not a matter of religious discrimination, and argued that the president decided there is a real risk of terrorism in the U.S., which is enough in itself to justify the ban, according to BuzzFeed News.
There’s also the question of how, even if the order is deemed to be unconstitutional, it would still need to be deemed illegal as well, according to Vox. The Immigation and Nationality Act allows the president to ban any “alien or class of aliens” from entering the U.S., but also prohibits the president from disallowing a visa “because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.”
With this heated up power struggle, plus an impassioned determination of rights, ethics, and constitutionality fueling the fire, it doesn’t look like the questions of this ban will be agreed upon any time soon.
Listen to the telephone hearing below.