Leading a coalition of 12 states, Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to uphold the latest travel ban crafted by the Trump administration to protect the nation from terrorism.
President Trump’s new executive order on immigration affects travel into the U.S. by foreign nationals from eight countries that are terror-prone or have inadequate security requirements. A U.S. District Court in Hawaii blocked the travel ban from taking effect, and the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit, which temporarily allowed parts of the policy to kick in. Attorney General Paxton led a 12-state coalition with an amicus brief in that 9th Circuit case.
“Through its latest travel ban, the Trump administration has taken significant and common-sense steps to upgrade vetting and national security procedures vital to protecting Texas and the rest of the country from terrorism,” Attorney General Paxton said. “We’re hopeful the Supreme Court will agree with our coalition that the travel ban is lawful and constitutional, and should be enforced in its entirety.”
In their brief, Attorney General Paxton and his counterparts argue that the travel ban provides “extensive findings supporting the need for a suspension of entry for several failed states, governments that are state sponsors of terrorism, or governments otherwise unwilling or unable to respond to adequate vetting or other terrorism-related concerns.”
Texas is joined in the amicus brief by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia.
In a separate ruling last month, a U.S. District Court in Maryland blocked parts of the travel ban. Leading a 10-state coalition, Attorney General Paxton filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit supporting the Trump administration’s motion for a stay of the ruling.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Paxton filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to defend the president’s original executive order on immigration, making Texas the only state to officially support the travel ban. When the administration’s revised travel ban was blocked, 16 states joined Texas in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of allowing crucial parts of the ban to take effect.