San Francisco - The US Justice
Department said on Thursday President Donald Trump would replace
his executive order suspending travel from seven Muslim-majority
countries "in the near future," according to a court filing.
The Justice Department said that given the upcoming
replacement, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals should not
reconsider an earlier ruling that suspended Trump's January 27
order.
"In so doing, the President will clear the way for
immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further,
potentially time-consuming litigation," the Justice Department
said in its filing.
Trump has said his directive, issued last month, was
necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist
militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Refugees
were banned for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were
banned indefinitely.
US District Judge James Robart in Seattle suspended the
order nationwide after Washington state challenged its legality,
eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against
the judge and the court system.
After the 9th Circuit last week upheld Robart's ruling, an
unidentified appeals court judge requested that the court's 25
full-time 9th Circuit judges vote on whether that should be
reconsidered by an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review.