No ban goes the gavel

Donald Trump

San Francisco: A US appeals court yesterday refused to reinstate Donald Trump's controversial travel ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, in a major political setback to the President, who vowed to legally challenge the unanimous ruling, saying "see you in court".

"We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay," the judges said in the unanimous order.

"The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States," the three-judge bench of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals here said, making it clear that they would not block a ruling by a Seattle court that halted Trump's executive order.

Trump described the ruling as a ‘political decision'. "It's a political decision, and we're going to see them in court. This is just a decision that came down, but we're going to win the case," Trump said.