A federal appeals court judge says President Donald Trump has the authority to block foreign travelers and courts must defer to the president's judgment in decisions about who should be allowed in the United States.

Judge Jay Bybee of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in court documents filed Wednesday that his appeals court colleagues were wrong when they refused to immediately reinstate Trump's original travel ban.

The Trump administration later revised the ban. A federal judge in Hawaii blocked that version on Wednesday. Bybee is a nominee of President George W. Bush.

Bybee says judges cannot investigate the president's motive for the ban as along as he provides a bona fide and legitimate reason for it. Bybee says the president had done that.

 
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• block foreign travelers
 
• united states