Trump Will Issue New Travel Order Instead of Fighting Case in Court
2017/2/21 12:03:15 Source：The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Thursday that it would not seek a rehearing of a decision that shut down President Donald Trump’s targeted travel ban. Instead, the administration will start from scratch, issuing a new executive order, the department said.
Last Thursday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, blocked the key parts of the original executive order, which suspended the nation’s refugee program as well as travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The panel said the original ban was unlikely to survive constitutional scrutiny.
The Justice Department said that the panel’s decision was riddled with errors but that the flaws it noted would be addressed in the new executive order.
“Rather than continuing this litigation,” the Justice Department’s brief said, “the president intends in the near future to rescind the order and replace it with a new, substantially revised executive order to eliminate what the panel erroneously thought were constitutional concerns.”
“In so doing,” the brief said, “the president will clear the way for immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further, potentially time-consuming litigation.”
In a news conference Thursday, Trump said the new executive order would be issued next week.
In its brief, the Justice Department urged the appeals court to await the new order and then vacate last Thursday’s decision.
It is not clear that the issuance of a new and narrower executive order will make the case before the 9th Circuit moot or that the court will agree to vacate the decision even if it did.
The Supreme Court has said the “voluntary cessation” of a government action does not usually make a case moot if the government remains free to resume the conduct after the case is dismissed.
In calling for a legal do-over, the Justice Department avoided a Supreme Court test of the original executive order. A 4-4 tie on the short-handed Supreme Court would have left the panel’s decision in place.
Trump’s travel ban, issued Jan. 27, caused confusion and protests at airports nationwide and was immediately challenged in court. Many federal judges blocked aspects of the order.
