On Monday, December 4, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two separate, but related, orders staying lower courts’ preliminary injunctions against President Trump’s most recent travel ban (see our previous alert). The practical impact of these Supreme Court orders is that the latest travel ban reinstates President Trump’s Presidential Proclamation of September 24, 2017.

This stay of the injunctions allows the full travel ban to continue pending the government’s appeal on the merits to the 4th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. These circuit courts had previously ruled that the ban could go into effect but not against those foreign nationals from the impacted countries who had close personal or professional ties to a person or entity in the United States. Until a ruling on the merits, the latest travel ban is now in full effect and imposes varying levels of travel restrictions for citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia. Please refer to our alert on this travel ban here.

Arguments on the challenge to this third travel ban before the U.S. 9th Circuit were heard by its court of appeals in Seattle on Wednesday, December 6. Recognizing the Supreme Court’s December 4 order, Appeals Court Judge Ronald Gould stated that the court would issue an opinion as soon as is practical. A separate challenge to the travel ban will be heard in the U.S. 4th Circuit in Virginia on Friday. 

We will continue to monitor this important litigation and report on it as decisions are issued.

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