The Trump administration appealed for an emergency stay of the judge’s order halting the implementation of his Executive Orders on immigration and refugees but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected it.

The ninth US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco made the ruling early on Sunday morning, and asked those challenging the ban to respond to the appeal filed by the Trump administration late on Saturday night, and the justice department to file a counter-response by Monday afternoon.

“Appellants’ request for an immediate administrative stay pending full consideration of the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is denied,” the ruling said.

The justice department had earlier filed an appeal against a judge’s order lifting the ban, as the new administration’s flagship immigration policy threatened to unravel after one week.

The higher court’s denial of an immediate stay means legal battles over the ban will continue into the coming week at least.

Naturally, all those who were blocked are quickly traveling to the US while the ban is lifted, including an Iranian baby whose heart surgery in the US had been placed in jeopardy.

Trump reacted in his characteristically childish fashion, tweeting: “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” and “The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!” and later, “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!”

‘So-called judge’? He is actually a judge, appointed to the court in 2004 by George W. Bush, in fact. The latest attacks on judges by Trump has been blasted by critics.

Chief among those warning about the balance of powers on Sunday was the independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who said Congress and the courts should actively check each other and the president.

“We are a democracy, not a one-man show,” Sanders told CNN’s State of the Union. “We are not another Trump enterprise.”

He added: “We have a president I fear is moving us in a very authoritarian direction, a president who apparently has contempt for the entire judiciary.”

The senator, who rose to national prominence in a hard-fought but losing campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, said Trump had led the US into “a dangerous and unprecedented moment in American history”. The onus would be on Republican leaders, he said, to use Congress as a shield for the liberties of ordinary Americans.

“I would hope that people like Mitch McConnell have the courage to stand up to Trump’s movement toward authoritarianism,” Sanders said.

Fat chance. McConnell and speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican politicians are likely quivering in their boots that even the mildest criticism of Trump will result in him turning his fire on them.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is having a hard time keeping their video welcome to the US up-to-date.