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Court to weigh appeal on Indiana's block on Syrian refugees

Flickr Creative Commons/Mark Taylor

A federal appeals court in Chicago is deciding whether the State of Indiana has the right to ban refugees from Syria.  Days after terrorists struck Paris, France last November, Indiana Governor Mike Pence placed a ban on Syrian refugees from being resettled in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sought an injunction, stating Pence doesn’t have the authority to do that.  ACLU’s attorney Ken Falk made the same argument in court today.

"This is a federal decision. This is a decision the president of the United States and the federal government has made and there is no room in the program for refugee resettlement for a state to decide they don’t like one particular class of refugee or another."

Indiana’s Solicitor General Thomas Fisher argued Pence placed the ban after questioning whether federal authorities were adequately screening refugees.