President Donald Trump said Friday that he plans to move "very rapidly" to protect his executive action on immigration. Josh Robin filed the following report.
A hug for the Japanese prime minister, then an extended handshake, but no smiles as the the president blasted Thursday's federal appeals court decision.
"We are going to do whatever is necessary to keep our country safe," Donald Trump said.
Aboard Air Force One later, the president says that may be just another order.
"We need speed for reasons of security, so it could very well be that we do," Trump said.
If it is redrafted, more care would be needed to avoid more blocks from courts.
There are terrorism-related issues in the seven banned countries, some of which have arguably reached U.S. shores. Last year, a Somali immigrant rammed his car into an Ohio crowd, slashing people, before police killed him.
But judges ask why it was a matter of grave national secuity to bar everyone from Somalia and six other countries. A new order would have to tailor to the specific risks.
"And not take this blunderbuss aproach of prohibiting millions of people from entering the United States, 99 percent of whom have nothing to do with terrorism, whether here or abroad," said Cristina Rodriguez, who teaches constitutional law at Columbia Law School.
Rodriguez says a broader court review could also delve into what this court largely avoided, whether Muslims were unconstitutionally singled out. That could include Trump's more inflammatory statements.
"The court is not going to look just at what the order says. It will look at the process behind its development and implementation, and what we might be able to discern about the president and others' intent," Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, there are new questions about Trump's national security advisor. The Washington Post says Michael Flynn talked about sanctions against Russia with that country's U.S. ambassador before Trump took office. The sanctions came after Russia meddled in November's election.
It also quotes Flynn changing his denial about whether sanctions came up.
Friday, Trump said he hadn't seen the report.
Flynn was a longtime public Trump supporter during the campaign, and Trump is a man who prizes loyalty. So far, there are no signs that Flynn's job is in jeopardy.