Story highlights Travel ban has not gone into effect

Would block entry from six Muslim-majority countries

Washington (CNN) The Trump administration Thursday night asked the Supreme Court to allow the President's travel ban that blocks entry from six Muslim-majority countries to go into effect.

In its filings, the administration asked the nine justices to consider the legality of President Donald Trump's executive order, a move that appeals a ruling by the 4th Circuit that upheld a nationwide halt to the ban.

The case marks the President's first test of his travel ban in the nation's highest court after multiple stinging rebukes of his national security justifications for the ban in the lower federal courts.

Last month, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals largely affirmed a federal judge's decision from March, which found the core provision of the revised executive order -- temporarily blocking foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US -- likely violates the Constitution because its primary purpose was to disfavor Muslims.

The 4th Circuit held that the executive order is composed of "vague words of national security" but in context "drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination."

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