Appeals court rules against Trump travel ban

A federal appeals court has ruled against President Trump’s travel ban, upholding a nationwide injunction barring the administration from enforcing the executive order.

Trump’s order “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination,” Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his ruling.

Read the 4th Circuit’s decision to uphold the block on Trump’s travel ban

The 10-3 ruling relied heavily, as other courts have done, on Trump’s statements during his campaign in which he called for a ban on Muslim’s immigrating to the U.S. The plaintiffs who have challenged the travel order have argued that it is a disguised version of the Muslim ban that he called for during the campaign.

The 4th Cirucit, based in Richmond, Va., is one of two appeals courts that have recently heard arguments on the travel ban. A similar case is pending before the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco.