Trump’s Muslim statements scrutinized by travel ban judges

SEATTLE — Federal judges on Monday pepper a lawyer for US President Donald Trump with questions about whether the administration’s travel ban discriminates against Muslims, and hone in on the president’s campaign statements. This is the second time in a week that the rhetoric has faced judicial scrutiny.

Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who is defending the travel ban, tells a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that “over time, the president clarified that what he was talking about was Islamic terrorist groups and the countries that sponsor or shelter them.” He argues that the executive order halting travel from six majority Muslim nations doesn’t say anything about religion, and neither the state of Hawaii nor an imam from that state who wants his mother-in-law to visit has standing to sue.

“This order is aimed at aliens abroad, who themselves don’t have constitutional rights,” Wall says in a hearing broadcast live on C-Span and other news stations.

Neal Katyal, who represents Hawaii, scoffs at the argument and says Trump had repeatedly spoken of a Muslim ban during the presidential campaign and after.

“This is a repeated pattern of the president,” Katyal says.

The 9th Circuit panel is hearing arguments over Hawaii’s lawsuit challenging the travel ban, which would suspend the nation’s refugee program and temporarily bar new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The judges will decide whether to uphold a Hawaii judge’s decision in March that blocked the ban.

Last week, judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over whether to affirm a Maryland judge’s decision putting the ban on ice. They also questioned whether they could consider Trump’s campaign statements, with one judge asking if there was anything other than “willful blindness” that would prevent them from doing so.

— AP