WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump denounced as “disgraceful” Friday an appellate court’s decision blocking his order barring US entry to refugees and nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Trump reacted to Thursday’s unanimous decision by the US court of appeals based in San Francisco in an early morning tweet that selectively quoted from a post on Lawfare, a blog on law and national security issues.
The blog post found it “remarkable” that the appellate panel “did not even bother to cite” a key US legal statute that authorizes the president to suspend entry to the United States of all or any class of aliens he deems detrimental to US interests.
After quoting the Lawfare passage in his tweet, Trump declared the appellate court’s conclusion: “A disgraceful decision!”
Trump neglected to say, however, that the blog goes on to conclude that the appellate court reached the correct decision in upholding a lower court judge’s suspension of the ban.
Lawfare said the decision was right “for the simple reason that there is no cause to plunge the country into turmoil again while the courts address the merits of these matters over the next few weeks.”
The case is seen as likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, although it could go back for further review in the lower courts.
“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Trump tweeted Thursday minutes after the San Francisco appeals court handed down its ruling.
