Trump: Travel Ban Ruling Is 'Political Decision'

Supreme Court ruling could arrive as soon as next week
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 10, 2017 5:33 AM CST
Updated Feb 10, 2017 6:14 AM CST
Trump: Travel Ban Ruling Is 'Political Decision'
President Trump speaks during a meeting with senators about his Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch on Thursday.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump was handed a huge defeat Thursday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision against his travel ban—but he made it clear he plans to keep fighting. "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! " he tweeted. He later said the ruling was a "political decision" and that "we look forward, as I just said, to seeing them in court," the Washington Post reports. He told reporters that he thought the administration could win an appeal of the ruling "very easily," though he admitted he hadn't discussed it with Jeff Sessions, the new attorney general, yet. A roundup of coverage:

  • The administration is expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, though most analysts predict that the court will split 4-4, meaning the 9th Circuit's decision will stand. The New York Times predicts that a decision could come as soon as next week. There's also a chance that the administration could ask the whole 9th Circuit Court to rule on the executive order, instead of the three-judge panel that issued Thursday's decision.
  • The Hill lists five key quotes from what it calls a decision that "ripped apart" Trump's executive order. Among them: "Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the Government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all. We disagree."

  • Some Democrats hope Trump will just withdraw the order, though Republicans, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, predicted that the decision would be reversed by the Supreme Court, reports the New York Times. "This misguided ruling is from the 9th Circuit, the most notoriously left-wing court in America, and the most-reversed court at the Supreme Court," Cotton said. "I'm confident the administration's position will ultimately prevail."
  • Politico lists three mistakes that contributed to the court loss, including the failure to make it clear from the start that green card holders would be exempt—a blunder that made it inevitable that the order would face stiff court challenges from US residents very early on.
  • CNN looks at the implications of the defeat for the Trump administration, noting that Trump has now run into the limits of executive power and predicting that the saga will continue indefinitely.
  • The Miami Herald reports that Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father criticized by Trump for his speech at the Democratic National Convention, praised the decision, calling the ban an "embarrassment." Trump and members of his administration have "malice" toward Muslims, Khan said at an Islamic center in Miami, but "they will be defeated. There are patriotic Americans among Republicans that know that these are not the values of this country."
  • The decision sends the message that the courts will be as much of a check on Trump's power as they are in any other presidency, and it's the kind of early blow that some presidencies struggle to recover from, analysts tell the Wall Street Journal. "It's a permanent drag on his presidency even if he does eventually get out of it," says a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. "Early missteps can be overcome, but the problem is: Then you have to overcome them, and you are getting out of a hole, rather than starting on level ground."
  • The Hill reports that social media users have been ruthlessly mocking Trump's "SEE YOU IN COURT" line, not least because he seems to have been addressing the court. "Trump's SEE YOU IN COURT is like if Matt Ryan had gone home and tweeted SEE YOU AT THE SUPER BOWL," tweeted Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale.
(More Trump travel ban stories.)

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