AUSTIN – Leading a coalition of 10 states, on Oct. 24 Attorney General Ken 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 a ruling blocking the latest travel ban.
The restrictions on travel to the U.S. apply to eight countries that are terror-prone or have inadequate security requirements.
A district court judge in Maryland blocked parts of the order from taking effect, acknowledging that his decision was swayed, in part, by the president’s campaign tweets last year.
“The Trump administration’s latest travel ban is a lawful exercise of congressionally-delegated executive power over foreign affairs and national security,” Paxton said. “Since 1980, 44 travel bans have been instituted by presidents, including six during the Obama-era, to protect Americans from those who would do us harm.”
Texas is joined in the amicus brief by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia.
In February, 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.