The Executive Order Travel Ban saga continues into the dog days of Summer. On June 19, 2017, the US Supreme Court issued an order (See Trump v. Hawaii) partially upholding a lower court’s modification of the preliminary injunction exempting from the travel ban impacted grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States.  Once again, splitting the difference, the Court also stayed the district court’s order modifying the preliminary injunction with respect to refugees covered by a formal assurance pending resolution of the appeal in the Ninth Circuit. In addition, the Court denied the Government’s motion for clarification of its June 26, 2017 order.

By way of background, please see our prior blog post detailing the travel ban EO’s history and SCOTUS’ decision of June 26^th. Thereafter, on July 13, 2017 the district court modified its preliminary injunction to prevent the government from applying EO 13780 to exclude:

• Grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States; and
• Refugees who have a formal assurance from a resettlement agency in the United States or who are part of the Lautenberg Program.

The government then filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit of the district court’s 7/13/17 order modifying the preliminary injunction. The government also filed a motion for clarification of the 6/26/17 stay ruling in the Supreme Court.

The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have issued notices implementing the above. The US Supreme Court is expected to rule on the merits on this case when it returns to session in October.