District courts across the country have so far blocked the policy from going into effect.On Friday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed petitions asking the justices to take up the issue in three separate cases that were still in lower courts so it could be decided definitively this term. Francisco argued that lower court rulings imposing nationwide injunctions were wrong and warrant immediate review.
He said that because of the injunctions, “the military has been forced to maintain that prior policy for nearly a year” despite a determination by Mattis and a panel of experts that the “prior policy, adopted by (Defence Secretary Ash Carter), posed too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality”.Earlier in the month, the Department of Justice warned the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that it planned to ask for emergency relief to lift the nationwide injunction.
The filing comes after Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump got into a public dispute about the independence of the judiciary this week
Roberts issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the President for calling one lower court judge who ruled against him an “Obama judge”. The President responded via Twitter criticizing Roberts and accusing the American judiciary of undermining national security.
