BACK TO COURT – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  The president's travel ban directive, frozen by unfriendly court decisions, is going back to court.  From Fox: 

President Trump's revision of his controversial executive order imposing a travel and refugee ban on certain countries will get an important legal test on Monday, when a federal appeals court in Virginia weighs whether the administration overstepped its authority.

At issue is whether the ban violates the Religion Clause of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, and the ban on nationality discrimination in the issuance of immigrant visas contained in a 65-year-old congressional law.

The case will be a major test of presidential power, especially in the area of immigration.
The White House frames the issue as a temporary move involving national security. A coalition of groups in opposition call the order blatant religious discrimination, since the six countries involved have mostly Muslim populations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

Nearly all of the 15 full-time judges on the Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals are expected to hear the case in a public oral argument, a move to expedite the issue eventually to the Supreme Court in coming months for final review. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a conservative on bench, is expected to recuse since his son-in-law will be arguing the case for the Trump Justice Department. A majority of the active bench were nominated by Democratic presidents.

COMMENT:  No way to predict this.  Trump's orders have been blocked by the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit, the darling circuit of the liberals.  Fourth Circuit, despite the number of Democratic appointees, should be more reasonable.  We should get some sense of the Court's leanings by the questions the judges ask.

May 8, 2017