Texas, Louisiana and 11 other mostly Republican-led states are throwing their support behind the Trump administration’s temporary ban on new visas to people from six mostly Muslim nations.
Bloomberg reports the states in a court filing today say President Donald Trump’s revised travel restrictions, now frozen by federal judges, are well within the authority granted to him by Congress and don’t discriminate based on religion.
Trump’s remarks about Islam before the election, including a call for a “total shutdown” on Muslims entering the U.S., are irrelevant because his March 6 executive order doesn’t reference religion, the states also told the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
“Comments the president made during his campaign for office cannot overcome the executive order’s detailed explanation of its national-security basis,” the states said.
The filing supports Trump’s bid for an appellate-level order that puts on hold a lower-court decision blocking the visa limits while the case is being decided. The appeals court is scheduled to consider the U.S. appeal on May 8.
Other states joining Texas and Louisiana include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant also signed on to the filing, though not that state’s attorney general, Democrat Jim Hood.
