A federal appeals court has blocked a lower court order that would have opened the application pool for the 2027 diversity visa lottery, according to Fox News. The program admits about 55,000 immigrants a year from countries with low immigration to America.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a preliminary injunction from District Judge Jinsook Ohta, Fox News reports. Ohta had ordered the State Department to open the pool after Secretary of State Marco Rubio delayed new applications last November. The application period never opened.

The appeals court found that the law firm that brought the case, Red Eagle Law, did not have standing to sue, Fox News reports. The firm represents people going through the lottery. The program was meant to "encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms," the court wrote.

Letting the firm sue would be "opening the floodgates," the court added, allowing lawyers to "roam the country in search of governmental wrongdoing." The judges said their ruling rested on procedure. "We do not endorse the Department's failure to open the lottery registration period," they wrote.

A month after the delay, the State Department paused issuing diversity visas, Fox News reports. That came after a man who had received a lottery visa in 2017 carried out a shooting at Brown University that killed two people. President Donald Trump has long opposed the program.

What we know: The appeals court blocked the order to open the 2027 lottery pool on standing grounds.
What we don't: Whether Red Eagle Law will appeal. Only Fox News has reported this so far, and NewsHabit hasn't seen independent confirmation.