by Donald Wood
Last updated: 10:30 AM ET, Fri February 10, 2017
[CALLOUT]
On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled against the motion to reinstate President Donald Trump's travel ban.
In response, Donald Trump took to Twitter to threaten continued legal action:
According to NBCNews.com, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously to uphold the decision to suspend President Trump's Executive Order which temporarily banned citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
Not only did the panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals find that the Justice Department did not prove that suspending the travel ban would cause "irreparable injury," but they also ruled against the notion that the president's immigration policies regarding national security were unreviewable.
"There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy," the three-judge panel wrote in their official findings.
The decision likely sets up a battle which will culminate in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thursday's ruling came less than one week after a lower-court judge in Seattle issued the temporary restraining order against Trump's Executive Order. The Justice Department cited harm to the public when asking for a stay pending review of the appeal.
While officials from the White House have announced they will review the appeal court ruling, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the decision by the appeals court showed that the president is not above the law.
President Trump's Executive Order was issued on Jan. 27 and barred entry into the U.S. by citizens from Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen for 90 days. Critics of the order challenged Trump's travel ban on constitutional grounds.
"The Government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States," the ruling from the judges said. "Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the Government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all. We disagree."
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