The US Justice Department has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to put on hold a judge’s ruling modifying the Trump administration’s travel ban on immigrants from six majority-Muslim nations.
The department filed the request for a stay with the court of appeals on Saturday while the US Supreme Court considers its appeal of a ruling by a federal court judge in Hawaii, AP reported.
On Thursday, US District Judge Derrick Watson ordered the government to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.
His order also vastly expanded the list of US family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.
On Friday night, the Justice Department filed an appeal of Watson’s ruling. It said the judge’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling “empties the court’s decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just ‘close’ family members, but virtually all family members”.
"The truth here is that the government’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s stay order defies commonsense," said Omar Jadwat, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union involved in challenging the ban, Reuters reported.
"That’s what the district court correctly found and the attorney general’s misleading attacks on its decision can’t change that fact."
In his decision, Watson harshly criticized the government's definition of close family relations as "the antithesis of commonsense."
The Supreme Court has asked the State of Hawaii to respond by Tuesday at noon to the government's motion to block Watson's ruling.
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