President Donald Trump slammed the courts on Wednesday as “so political” as a panel of appellate judges weighed whether to reinstate an executive order barring U.S. entry to refugees and nationals from seven mainly-Muslim countries.
The travel ban, which plunged airports around the country into chaos after it was announced without warning on January 27, has embroiled Mr. Trump in a willful test of strength with the U.S. judiciary less than three weeks into his presidency. Speaking to police chiefs and sheriffs, Mr. Trump expressed “amazement” over questions raised about the ban in a high-stakes hearing by three federal appeals judges, saying what he heard was “disgraceful, just disgraceful”.
“I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased and we haven’t had a decision yet. But courts seem to be so political,” he said.
The ban was suspended nationwide on Friday by a federal judge in Seattle, after two U.S. states asked it to be overturned on grounds of religious discrimination and that it had caused “irreparable injury”. Taking up the case, the federal court of appeals in San Francisco heard arguments in a live-streamed conference call in which a Justice Department lawyer argued that the President had clear authority to order the ban on national security grounds. — AP
