US appeals court upholds block on Trump travel ban

A second federal appeals court refused on Monday to revive US President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people entering the United States from six Muslim-majority nations, in a dispute headed to the US Supreme Court.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals kept in place a lower court injunction on the ban, arguing the President had overstepped his authority and his executive order discriminated against travellers based on their nationality.

"Immigration, even for the president, is not a one-person show," the three justices said in their unanimous ruling. "The president, in issuing the executive order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress."

It said the Republican president's 6 March order violated existing immigration law. But the three-judge panel - all Democratic appointees - did not address whether it was unconstitutional discrimination against Muslims.

The judges added the government had failed to prove "any link between an individual's nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism," and cited a 5 June tweet by Trump to back their argument.

"Indeed, the president recently confirmed his assessment that it is the 'countries' that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the president's 'travel ban,'" the judges wrote.

Another court, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, on 25 May upheld a Maryland judge's ruling that also blocked Trump's 90-day ban on travellers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The 4th Circuit had ruled that the ban, which replaced an earlier 27 January one also blocked by the courts, "drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination" aimed at Muslims.

Even before Monday's ruling, the case was on the fast track to the Supreme Court, where the administration on 1 June filed an emergency request seeking to reinstate the order and hear its appeal of the 4th Circuit ruling. The Supreme Court could act on the administration's request as soon as this week.