Trump reverses course, might still appeal travel ban to the Supreme Court

The White House is saying Friday that all options are on the table to reinstitute President Trump's travel ban, including an appeal to the Supreme Court, after saying earlier that they would not be seeking that route.

From the Hill:

The White House sent conflicting signals on Friday evening, with chief of staff Reince Priebus saying the administration was still considering an appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court soundly rejected its request to reinstate the order.

Priebus's statement came roughly an hour after a White House official said it was not planning to challenge the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the ban.

Trump also indicated that he might simply rewrite the executive order and start again, further muddying the waters on the issue.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told Ashley Parker of the Washington Post that Trump was still considering taking the temporary order to the Supreme Court. "Every single court option is on the table, including an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision on the TRO [temporary restraining order] to the Supreme Court," he added.

Earlier, CNN's Pamela Brown explained the reasoning behind avoiding the Supreme Court appeal:

The White House, apparently, doesn't want to take the risk of losing an appeal on the temporary restraining order because of the fear of a four-four split at the Supreme Court, which would leave the Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in place. That ruling kept the travel ban on hold, of course as you know, that came down yesterday. But they're still considering reissuing a new re-worked executive order. The source I spoked with cautioned though that a new order risks making the current lawsuit moot, which the administration may not want to do because it believes it could ultimately win the case on the merits.

The future of Trump's controversial executive order has been in question after a federal judge in Seattle slapped a temporary restraining order on his travel ban, resulting in vehement denunciations from Trump and his allies. The president even took to Twitter to deride him as a "so-called judge," prompting many critics to use it as the latest example of his predilection to authoritarian rule.