On Monday, Trump's administration spoke to the federal judge who was behind blocking the temporary travel ban on citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries. The administration said that it was keeping its legal options open until further notice from a federal appeals court.
The Justice Department said that the scheduled proceeding in the Washington State court needed to be delayed till a decision to rehear the government's case was made by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
According to USA Today, Chad Readler, the acting Assistant Attorney General said that currently, "defendants believe the appropriate course is to postpone any further proceedings in the district court." However, Minnesota and Washington urged Robart to begin hearing their case against the travel ban on the merits and skip further procedural steps.
The lawyers of the two states defended the move by stating that due to the gravity of the constitutional allegations of the states as well as the "defendants' stated national security concerns and the public interests at stake. They requested that the procedures should proceed without delay.
It is improbable that the complete appeals court will vote to rehear the case. This is because Democratic presidents named the greater majority of the judges. However, this would also cause objecting judges to voice and raise their dissents. Two of the four judges that ruled against the ban were nominated by Democrats and the other two by Republicans.
Announced on 27 Jan. Trump's ban temporarily bans the citizens of Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Sudan for 90 days. All refugees were barred from entering the States for 120 days while Syrian citizens were banned indefinitely. The decision caused chaos to erupt all over the U.S. and the world as well as international airports.
Under the congressional statute and Constitution, Trump's administration contends that the president holds the authority to control immigration for national security purposes. The administration also pointed to a 1952 law that enables a president to deny the entry of immigrants or classes of immigrants if he deems them "detrimental to the interests of the United States".
