The Trump administration said Friday it will ask the Supreme Court to block a federal judge’s ruling limiting the scope of President Trump’s travel ban.
“The Supreme Court has had to correct this lower court once, and we will now reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the executive branch’s duty to protect the nation,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.
The decision came one day after a Hawaii-based judge dealt Trump a defeat by ordering the government to expand the number of people who are exempt from the controversial ban.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said the Trump administration did not abide by a Supreme Court ruling that allowed a partial version of the ban to take effect.
The government began to allow residents of six Muslim-majority nations with immediate family in the U.S. to enter the country. Watson said those criteria were too narrow.
Watson was one of the federal judges who issued a nationwide injunction blocking the initial ban, as well as a revised version.