2018), was a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, upholding an injunction against enforcement of Proclamation No.
9645, titled "Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats", a presidential proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on September 24, 2017.
It is a successor to Executive Order 13769, entitled "Protection of the Nation from Terrorist Entry into the United States," which were also enjoined by the District Court of Maryland and the Fourth Circuit in a case decided in 2017 by the same name of International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump, 857 F.3d 554 (4th Cir.
The suing parties were made up of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP); HIAS, Inc.; the Middle East Studies Association (MESA); the Arab-American Association of New York (AAANY); the Yemeni-American Merchants Association (YAMA); Muhammed Meteab; Mohamad Mashta; Grannaz Amirjamshidi; Fakhri Ziaolhagh; Shapour Shirani; and Afsaneh Khazaeli; the Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB); the Iranian Students' Foundation (ISF); Eblal Zakzok; Sumaya Hamadmad; Fahed Muqbil; and several unnamed individuals (John Doe 1, 3, and 5; and Jane Doe 1–6).
These groups were represented in argument by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).
[1][2] The case in front of Judge Chuang was argued by Justin Cox of the National Immigration Law Center and Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union for the Plaintiffs, and Jeffrey Wall, Acting Solicitor General, for the government.
Judge Chuang noted that the statute does not prohibit the President from barring entry into the United States or the issuance of non-immigrant visas based on nationality.
[9][10] On May 25, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion upholding the March ruling of the Maryland district court,[11] and continuing the block of the travel ban.
The opinion found that the ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination".
Some of the statements the Court relied upon in reaching this determination included, but were not limited to, the following: After analyzing these statements under the constitutional test outlined in Lemon v. Kurtzman, a landmark 1971 Supreme Court case, the majority found that Executive Order 13780 "cannot be divorced from the cohesive narrative linking it to the animus that inspired it," and that a "reasonable observer would likely conclude that [the order's] primary purpose is to exclude persons from the United States on the basis of their religious beliefs."
Hawaii's outside counsel in a consolidated related case, Neal Katyal, told the Court he was "in Utah with very little internet access" for the rest of the week, so it granted him an extra day to file the state's response brief.
[22] On June 29, President Trump sent out a diplomatic cable to embassies and consulates seeking to define what qualifies as a "bona fide relationships", excluding connections with refugee resettlement agencies, and clarifying that step-siblings and half-siblings are close family while grandparents and nephews are not.