President Trump on Tuesday said the legal battle over his controversial executive order on travel and refugees could wind up at the Supreme Court.
"We're going to take it through the system," Trump told reporters during a meeting with sheriffs at the White House. "It's very important for the country."
Trump expressed hope the legal wrangling would resolve itself before it reaches the nation’s highest court, saying the executive order he issued is “common sense.”
“Some things are law, and I’m all in favor of that, and some things are common sense,” he said. “This is common sense.”
Trump declined to make a firm prediction on how the fight would end. “We’ll see what happens,” he added.
Trump’s order suspends resettlement of refugees from all nations for at least four months and indefinitely bars those from Syria. It also slaps a 90-day ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East and Africa.
The president has said the move is necessary to stop “radical Islamic terrorists” from carrying out attacks in the U.S., but critics have derided it as an unconstitutional policy that discriminates against Muslims.
A contentious court battle has put the policy on ice, much to the chagrin of Trump.
U.S. District Court Judge James Robart temporarily blocked the order in a weekend ruling, prompting the president to slam the George W. Bush appointee as a “so-called judge” who is making the U.S. vulnerable to a terrorist strike.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is set to hear arguments Tuesday on the Department of Justice’s emergency request to lift Robart’s order and resume enforcement of the travel ban.