MONTGOMERY – 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.
