The top lawyer with the Obama administration said in an interview released Friday that the Supreme Court would likely reject Donald Trump‘s proposed Muslim travel ban.
“You don’t want to speculate on a case that doesn’t exist and probably will never exist,” outgoing U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told MSNBC with a laugh.
“But I can’t imagine that the court would find a religious test like that appropriate,” Verrilli added in his interview with Ari Melber.
Trump has recently touted his proposal, first announced in December, to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States, though the Obama administration lawyer said he’d be “surprised” if any courts upheld such a ban.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee, whose proposal has been roundly denounced by top leaders in his own party, renewed talk of it after last weekend’s mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub by a man claiming allegiance to Islamic militants.
Verrilli, who led the Obama administration’s legal defense of the Affordable Care Act as well as the administration’s cases on same-sex marriage and immigration, is stepping down June 24 after five years in the position.
The Justice Department announced earlier this month that Deputy Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn would serve as acting solicitor general starting June 25.