The appeal to restore President Trump’s executive order was filed late on Saturday. The Justice Department also warned that the judge’s decision posed immediate harm to the public, and second-guessed the president’s national security judgment.
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The appeal will now go to a three-judge panel which can immediately decide to uphold the ruling in question or suspend it pending a full appeal.
Following Friday’s ruling, the president slammed the decision as a “terrible” mistake in a series of tweets on Saturday.
“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into US?” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump also said he had no doubts that the government will win the appeal.
“We’ll win. For the safety of the country, we’ll win,” he told reporters in Florida, as cited by Reuters.
Friday’s ruling by Seattle US District Judge James Robart place a temporary stop nationwide on the enforcement of Trump’s executive order barring nationals from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States for three months, and indefinitely banning all Syrian refugees.
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The executive order prompted large protests across the country, as well as a number of lawsuits. In his temporary restraining order on the ban, Judge Robart questioned the administration’s use of 9/11 to justify the order, saying that no attacks have been carried out on US soil by individuals from any of the seven countries listed.
The Justice Department appeal stated that Robart’s legal reasoning was lacking, noting also that the state of Washington does not have the legal standing to challenge a presidential directive.
The Department of Homeland Security stopped flagging travelers from the countries blacklisted by the Trump administration following the judge’s ruling.
