A day after the Trump administration released a new travel ban policy, the Supreme Court removed the argument date for the president's old travel ban case from its calendar.
The first iteration of Trump's travel ban sparked chaos at airports across the country and a flurry of legal challenges after being hastily written with little input outside the White House. The Supreme Court had allowed most of it to operate and planned to hear the case October 10.
But the court removed that hearing from its calendar Monday, writing in a brief, "The parties are directed to file letter briefs addressing whether, or to what extent, the Proclamation issued on September 24, 2017, may render [the travel ban cases] moot."
The briefs are due by noon on Thursday.
On Sunday, when the temporary ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries was set to expire, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing strict new restrictions on travelers from a handful of countries, including five that were covered by the expiring travel ban. Administration officials said the new measures are required to keep the nation safe.
Those changes will take effect October 18.
To limit confusion, valid visas would not be revoked as a result of the proclamation. The order also permits, but does not guarantee, case-by-case waivers for citizens of the affected countries.
U.S. & World
The new, indefinite restrictions apply to citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and North Korea. As part of the presidential proclamation signed Sunday, the U.S. will also bar the entry of certain Venezuelan government officials and their immediate families.
The old ban had barred citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who lacked a "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States" from entering the U.S. Only one of those countries, Sudan, will no longer be subject to travel restrictions.
