The Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration’s request to more strictly enforce its ban on refugees, at least until a federal appeals court weighs in, however the justices are leaving in place a lower court order that allows entry by some people with family members already in the country, the AP reports. The 6-3 order by the justices who last month let the president start restricting entry by people from six mostly Muslim countries, means the government must accept people with grandparents, cousins and other relatives in the U.S.
Last week the administration had appealed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson that required the government to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States. Trump asked the Supreme Court to clarify its June 26 decision, contending that Watson disobeyed it. Watson also vastly expanded the family relations that refugees and visitors can use to get into the country. In its Wednesday ruling, the Supreme Court blocked Watson’s order as it applies to refugees, but not the expanded list of relatives.
The order gave Trump a win on a separate issue: temporarily blocking a lower court ruling that would have opened the way for potentially thousands of refugees to enter the country in the coming months. That portion of the Supreme Court order applies while the administration appeals on that issue to a federal appellate court in San Francisco. The justices said the federal appeals court in San Francisco should now consider the appeal, although it is not clear how quickly that will happen.
In the meantime, the AP notes that up to 24,000 refugees who already have been assigned to a charity or religious organization in the U.S. will not be able to use that connection to get into the country. The Supreme Court also denied the administration’s request to clarify its ruling last month that allowed the administration to partially reinstate a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on refugees from anywhere in the world.
The court’s ruling exempted a large swath of refugees and travelers with a “bona fide relationship” with a person or an entity in the U.S. The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.
Watson’s order added grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins to a list that already included a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the U.S. The expanded list of relatives remains in effect.
As Bloomberg adds, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from Wednesday’s action, saying they would have blocked Watson’s entire ruling. Those same three justices said last month they would have allowed the Trump travel ban to take full effect.
Trump’s March 6 executive order said the 90-day travel ban and 120-day refugee ban would give officials time to assess U.S. vetting procedures and would address an “unacceptably high” risk that terrorists could slip into the country. Previously, lower courts had blocked the ban, saying Trump overstepped his authority and unconstitutionally targeted Muslims.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the travel ban on October 10.
via http://ift.tt/2vjKfZw Tyler Durden