US judges grill Trump Administration over Travel-Ban order

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump's order for banning U.S. entry to people from seven Muslim-majority countries temporarily, came under intense scrutiny from a US federal appeals court that questioned whether it unfairly targeted people over their religion.

According to foreign media reports, During a more than hour-long oral argument, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals asked the Trump administration's lawyer tough questions about whether the administration had provided any evidence that people from the seven countries were a danger.

"Congress has expressly authorized the president to suspend entry of categories of aliens," attorney August Flentje, special counsel for the US Justice Department, said under intense questioning from a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Thats what the president did here," Flentje said at the start of a more than hour-long oral argument conducted by telephone and broadcast live online. He said the president's Jan. 27 executive order was valid under the US Constitution.

The court said at the end of the session that it would issue a ruling as soon as possible. Beforehand, the court said it would likely rule this week but not on Tuesday. The matter is ultimately likely to go to the US Supreme Court.

A government lawyer defending US President Donald Trump's temporary entry ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries came under intense scrutiny from a US federal appeals court that questioned whether it unfairly targeted people over their religion.

Trumps Jan. 27 executive order barred entry for citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and imposed a 120-day halt on all refugees.

Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has defended the measure, the most divisive act of his young presidency, as necessary for national security.