The U.S. Supreme Court appeared deeply divided Wednesday over the lawfulness of President Donald Trump’s travel sanctions.
Though a tenuous majority appeared to favor the administration, the liberal bloc peppered Solicitor General Noel Francisco with brutal hypotheticals and heart-wrenching examples of migrants denied entry to the United States since Trump took office.
Justice Elena Kagan asked Francisco how thoroughly the court could review a ban on migration from Israel enacted by an openly anti-Semitic president, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered why a ten-year-old with cerebral palsy from a sanctioned country was denied a visa, despite exceptions proscribed for immigrants seeking medical care.
The coalition challenging the ban makes two different arguments. Their principal claim is that the sanctions exceed Trump’s authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality in the issuance of visas. They also claim the administration’s true purpose is to disfavor Islam, in violation of the First Amendment.
Read more at the Daily Caller.
