Shirley Higuera

Professor Chrysafi

English 201

19 February 2017

Rhetorical Analysis of Federal Appeals Court Refuses to Reinstate Trump Travel Ban

On February 9, 2017 in the New York Times newspaper The Associated Press published an

article called Federal Appeals Court Refuses to Reinstate Trump Travel Ban. The Associated Press in

this article consisted of five writers who contributed on this article. The five writer are Brian Melley (Los

Angeles), Gene Johnson (Seattle), Martha Bellisle (Seattle), Rachel La Corte (Olympia, Washington) and

Eric Tucker (Washington D.C). In this article it expresses the concerns the that the courts and states are

having due to the ban President Trump is placing. The travel ban was placed on seven predominantly

Muslim nations in which the public had brought up the concerns of this ban and protested against.

Fortunately the ban was taken down due to the legal issues it presented. President Trump urges to

reinstate the travel ban but the government seems to oppose the idea of the reinstate.

In this article The Associated Press uses a formal type of diction to help emphasize the concerns

and actions the government is taking against the travel ban. Majority of the article is written

straightforward such as:

They said the administration failed to show that the order met constitutional requirements to

provide notice or a hearing before restricting travel. And they said the administration presented no

evidence that any foreigner from the seven countries was responsible for a terrorist attack in the

U.S.

Although formal diction is considered to use sophisticated words, this article does not use many. Rather

the formality is that within the article you would not find slang and since this article is straightforward it

allows the reader to understand a tone of seriousness. Specifically in this quote they are the three San

Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges in which states the administration had failed to

present an actual good reason on placing the travel ban.

 In this article you can find that the writers used an active voice, which makes a reader understand

and side with the writers writing. While analyzing the article you can notice that there was no sugar

coating occurring during the writing of the article as well as the quotes of the people who spoke with them

helped create a clear understanding of the ban.

The court battle is far from over. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seems likely. That could

put the decision in the hands of a divided court that has a vacancy. Trump's nominee, Neil

Gorsuch, is unlikely to be confirmed in time to take part in any consideration of the ban, which

was set to expire in 90 days unless it is changed.

Specifically in this quote, the Associated Press is stating the progress of this court battle and the possible

outcome. Nowhere in this quote does the reader become unclear of what is occurring.

Overall, the writers used formal diction and an active voice to help understand what was truly

going on with the travel ban. Personally as the reader and after reading several articles of the travel ban,

this article wasnt sugarcoating the ban or stating about only Presidents Trump point of view on this ban,

but it had included the Court, Judges, Professors and the President.

The Associate Press. "Federal Appeals Court Refuses to Reinstate Trump Travel Ban." The New

York Times. The New York Times, 9 Feb. 2017. Web.

<https://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/02/09/us/ap-us-trump-travel-ban-lawsuit.html?referer=http%3

A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F>.