Court to hear revised Trump travel ban in May

Washington, April 4

A federal appeals court said it will hear arguments next month on the legality of US President Donald Trump's revised travel ban executive order, the media reported.

On Monday, the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that an appeal of a Hawaii-based judge's order blocking key aspects of Trump's directive will go before a three-judge panel of the appeals court in May, Politico news reported.

On March 6, Trump signed the revised version of his executive order on immigration that places a 90-day ban on people from six predominantly Muslim nations.

The new order, excluding Iraq from the original list of seven countries, bars citizens from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Meanwhile, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, is still deciding how to handle an appeal of a Maryland-based judge's narrower ruling blocking a single part of the revised Trump order: a ban on issuance of visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries.

The court earlier announced that a three-judge panel would hear arguments May 8.

However, the appeals court is also considering skipping that step.

No decision on that has been announced, reports Politico news.

The Trump administration would need both the Maryland and Hawaii orders cleared in order to fully implement the revised executive order.

Trump and his aides have argued that the directives are needed to prevent terrorist attacks against the US but critics said they cannot be justified on national security grounds and amount to a thinly-veiled versions of the "Muslim ban" Trump promised during the presidential campaign.

IANS