Breaking: The Most Liberal Circuit in the US Courts of Appeals, the So-Called "Ninth Circus," Rejects Trump Administration's Argument For Reinstating Travel Restrictions

Sorry to link the National Laughinstock, but I'm trying to get this out to you fast.

A federal appeals court has maintained the freeze on President Trump's controversial immigration order, meaning previously barred refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries can continue entering the U.S.

A panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the ruling of U.S. District Judge James Robart, who had decided Friday that Trump's temporary travel ban should be put on hold. The Department of Homeland Security soon suspended all enforcement of Trump’s controversial directive.

The Justice Department, representing the Trump administration, could now ask the Supreme Court -- which often defers to the president on matters of immigration and national security --to intervene. The Supreme Court, though, remains one justice short, and many see it as ideologically split 4-4. A tie would keep in place whatever the appeals court decides.

...

Judge Michelle Taryn Friedland, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, asked a Justice Department lawyer if the government had "pointed to any evidence connecting these countries with terrorism."

By the way: Why yes, there is a a lot of evidence connecting these countries to terrorism.

How many arrests have there been of foreign nationals for those seven countries since 9/11?" Robart asked a Justice Department lawyer in court on Feb. 3. When the lawyer said she didn't know, Robart said, "Let me tell you. The answer to that is none, as best I can tell."

It turns out the judge, and Nadler, and everybody else repeating the talking point had it wrong. Last year the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest released information showing that at least 60 people born in the seven countries had been convicted -- not just arrested, but convicted -- of terror-related offenses in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. And that number did not include more recent cases like Abdul Artan, a Somali refugee who wounded 11 people during a machete attack on the campus of Ohio State University last November.

So the talking point wasn't true. And yet at the 9th Circuit oral argument, the judges appeared to believe it was true, and Justice Department lawyer August Flentje didn't know enough to correct them.

Why didn't she have this fact at the ready? I don't know. Maybe she's incompetent, maybe she just... persists.

posted by Ace at 06:13 PM

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