US Justice Department to challenge court ruling against travel ban

Washington, March 18 (IANS) The US Justice Department on Friday filed a notice which would appeal a Maryland federal judge's ruling that halted a key portion of President Donald Trump's revised immigration order, media reports said.

The ruling in Maryland and another in Hawaii earlier this week claimed Trump's temporary barring US entry to predominantly Muslim refugees violated the US Constitution, citing statements by Trump and his advisers suggesting the real purpose of the disputed immigration order was to discriminate against Muslims.

The Trump administration denied it is a Muslim ban, arguing the order aims to prevent terrorism by suspending visitors from terror-prone countries where visa vetting may not be effective, Xinhua news agency reported.

So far the US Justice Department didn't move to appeal the Hawaii federal judge's ruling on Wednesday, hours after which Trump slammed it as "an unprecedented judicial overreach", pledging to take the legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court.

"We're going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court," Trump said, suggesting the ruling was made for "political reasons".

Under President Trump's order, a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. will be imposed on citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, while freezing refugee resettlement for four months.