[WASHINGTONPOST] President Trump’s revised travel ban faces two major legal tests this month when federal appeals courts on opposite coasts take up challenges to an executive order that the administration says is urgently needed for national security and that opponents say discriminates against Moslems.The first hearing comes today in Richmond before a panel of more than a dozen judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
Federal immigration law gives the president broad authority to bar foreign travelers from entering the United States. The Trump administration’s new policy temporarily suspends the U.S. refugee program and blocks new visas to citizens of six majority Moslem countries.
Before the order could take effect in March, a judge in Maryland and one in Hawaii halted enforcement of critical sections, pointing to comments by Trump and top advisers indicating that they wanted to bar Moslems from entry.
The 4th Circuit will consider whether to leave in place the Maryland decision siding with challengers who say the order violates First Amendment prohibitions on government denigration of a particular religion.