Photo via Flickr user Masha George
A federal appeals court in San Francisco will hear arguments regarding President Trump's highly contentious executive order on Tuesday, which bans all refugees and immigrants from seven countries with large Muslim populations from entering the US, Politico reports.On Friday, a federal judge in Seattle made a broad ruling that blocked major points of the executive order in response to a lawsuit filed by Washington and Minnesota. Sixteen other states, 100 tech companies, and numerous advocacy groups have since pledged their support behind that suit by filing friend-of-the-court briefs.The Justice Department then appealed that decision and asked to overturn District Court judge James Robart's ruling. The DOJ argued that the courts should not be able to override executive branch decisions on national security concerns."The potential national-security risks and harms resulting from the compelled application of procedures that the President has determined must be reexamined, for the purpose of ensuring an adequate measure of protection for the Nation, cannot be undone. Nor can the effect on our constitutional separation of powers," the Justice Department argued in its brief.At 6 PM EST, three judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals—William Canby Jr., Michelle Friedland, and Richard Clifton—will hear arguments from both sides via telephone. According to the New York Times, the decision the appeals court makes, or the Supreme Court will likely have to make later on, will answer important questions regarding how much power the president has to make decisions about the country's immigration policy.You can tune in to hear the oral arguments in the livestream below.
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