MONTGOMERY, Ala (EETV) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that Alabama is one of a coalition of 12 states filing an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Trump administration’s expanded travel ban affecting eight countries deemed to pose a security risk to the United States.
On Wednesday, Alabama and 11 other states filed a friend of the court brief in support of the Trump administration’s September 24, 2017, executive order which was blocked by a U.S. Circuit Court in Hawaii. The new Trump administration order expands the previous travel ban of citizens from nations that pose a security risk to add the countries of Chad, North Korea and Venezuela. The other nations on the travel ban list are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
“The President of the United States has the constitutional authority to take steps to protect the security of American citizens,” observed Attorney General Marshall. “The Trump administration’s travel ban is aimed at a select few countries which present a risk to American citizens by either posing as state sponsors of terrorism or are unwilling or unable to implement proper vetting procedures to ensure their citizens are not terrorists.”
Despite opponents’ claims of religious discrimination by the administration, the new list actually drops one Muslim country, Sudan, while adding the authoritarian nations of North Korea and Venezuela.
Alabama joined Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia in filing the amicus brief.
