The Supreme Court has dropped a challenge to U.S. President
Donald Trump's second travel ban, issued in March. The case originated in a Maryland
federal district court and survived an appeal in the Fourth Circuit Court. The Supreme
Court was scheduled
to hear oral arguments on Oct. 10 but canceled those hearings on Sept. 25 when
Trump issued
a proclamation, his third version of a travel ban. Technically, the Supreme
Court vacated the appeals court's decision and removed the case from the docket,
calling it moot now that Trump has issued a third travel ban to replace the
second.
Additionally, Trump's second travel ban had called for a
90-day ban on travel visas from certain Muslim-majority countries. After legal
wrangling, that 90-day period started in late June and thus ended in late
September.
The second travel ban also blocked refugees for
120 days, a period that will come to an end Oct. 24. A case that originated in
a Hawaii federal district court challenges the refugee ban, among other
aspects, and the Supreme Court had planned to hear the Maryland and Hawaii
cases together. The Supreme Court has not yet dropped the Hawaii case, though
it also has not yet scheduled a hearing.