With a federal appeals court order set to take effect today, Justice Anthony Kennedy, acting for the full Supreme Court, restored President Trump’s travel ban, and thus some 24,000 refugees covered by the appeals court ruling will have to wait until Oct. 10 (or later) to hear their fate.
That’s the date the full court will consider the travel restrictions ordered by President Trump early in his term. Had Justice Kennedy not issued his order, the administration would have had to temporarily admit refugees if a resettlement agency had promised that it would provide basic services for them, according to terms of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
Trump’s March 6 order banned travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and locked out most aspiring refugees for 120 days. Critics immediately condemned the move as a “Muslim ban,” but the president defended it as being necessary to prevent terrorism.