The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] on Thursday ordered an expedited schedule for the appeal of a lower court ruling [text, PDFs] blocking the travel ban executive order by President Donald Trump [official profile]. The court, after considering the federal government’s Motion to Expedite Appeal and Set Briefing Deadlines, the Plaintiffs’ Response, and the Government’s Reply [text, PDFs], scheduled oral arguments in the case for May 8.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] petitioned [JURIST report] for this expedited scheduling on Wednesday this week. Federal courts across the country are taking divergent views on the revised travel ban. On Monday, a Hawaii federal judge who issued one of the injunctions refused to clarify [JURIST report] his travel ban ruling. Judge Derrick Watson strongly condemned the new travel ban, saying “[t]he illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable, ” in his opinion [text, PDF]. Last week a Washington federal judge who ruled against Trump’s first travel ban declined [JURIST report] to extend the injunction on the revised ban. Also last week, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] denied [JURIST report] a rehearing on Trump’s first ban noting that the issue had become moot because the DOJ had withdrawn its appeal on the first ban. The DOJ requested a hold on the appeal proceedings in February and later DOJ withdrew [JURIST reports] it after Trump signed his revised ban.