Matt Zapotosky and Robert Barnes report in the Washington Post:
“The Supreme Court agreed with the Trump administration Tuesday and put on hold a lower court decision that would have allowed more refugees to enter the country.
The court issued a one-paragraph statement granting the administration’s request for a stay of the latest legal maneuvering involving the president’s executive order on immigration. There were no recorded dissents to the decision.
At issue is whether the president can block a group of about 24,000 refugees, who have assurances from sponsors, from entering the United States. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had interpreted a Supreme Court directive this summer to mean that they should be allowed in, but the government objected.
It is part of a complicated legal battle that began last January when President Trump issued his first version of the ban. The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the merits of his actions at a hearing Oct. 10.
The current case grows out of a Supreme Court decision last June that approved a limited version of a presidential order that temporarily blocked refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim countries.
[Supreme Court allows limited version of Trump’s travel ban to take effect and will consider case in fall]
The justices said Trump could impose a limited version of the measure, but not on those with a “bona fide” connection to the United States, such as having family members here, a job or a place in a U.S. university.
It is the interpretation of a “bona fide” connection to the United States that is being debated.
The government initially declined to include grandparents and other extended family members as meeting that standard, as well as refugees with formal assurances. A federal district judge said the government’s reading was too broad, and stopped it.
The Supreme Court largely upheld that ruling in July, though it put on hold the portion dealing with refugees.
[Supreme Court allows Trump refugee ban but backs broader exemptions for relatives]
Last week, a federal appeals court panel weighed in, deciding that the administration could block neither grandparents nor refugees with assurances.
The Justice Department this week asked the Supreme Court to step in again — though only to block refugees, not grandparents and other extended family members. Even those refugees with formal assurances from a resettlement agency lack the sort of connection that should exempt them from the ban, the Justice Department argued in its new filing to the Supreme Court.”
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Read the rest of the article at the link.
The beat goes on. We’ll see how it eventually comes out. But, it seems like refugees can’t catch a break.
PWS
09-12-17