The Justice Department announced Thursday it will ask the Supreme Court to review a court order blocking President Trump’s revised travel ban.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the administration “strongly disagrees” with a federal court’s decision to keep the order in place, calling the travel ban “a constitutional exercise of the President’s duty to protect our communities from terrorism.”
Sessions said the department “will seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court.”
The move is an attempt by the Trump administration to reinstate the policy as quickly as possible.
The Justice Department made the announcement shortly after a Richmond, Va.-based federal appeals court refused earlier Thursday to reinstate Trump’s temporary ban on nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 10-3 ruling that Trump’s executive order, which also suspends refugee admissions for 120 days, “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”
The travel ban is a major piece Trump’s push to crack down on immigration enforcement, but it has suffered a series of major legal blows since Trump signed the initial version of the order in late January.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is also set to weigh in on a Hawaii judge’s ruling blocking the order. Judges heard arguments in the case on May 15, but a decision is not expected for at least several more weeks.