Thanks in no small part to the tech industry’s uprising, President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration and travel ban is dead — for now.

On Thursday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco upheld a Seattle federal court’s hold on Trump’s immigration executive order to ban visitors from seven mainly Muslim countries. The court brushed back the administration’s claim that the order couldn’t be reviewed by the judiciary.

“There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability, which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy,” said the court. The 3-0 unanimous decision was predicated on the assumption that Trump’s government had not sufficiently proved there was a justifiable terror threat to warrant the order.

Nationals from the seven countries, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, as well as refugees, now can enter the U.S. with a valid visa. The order had wreaked havoc on many visitors’ and refugees’ plans to come to the U.S.

“On the one hand, the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies,” the court said. “And on the other, the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination.”

Many leading tech execs had been vocal and at times vociferous about the ban, calling it “un-American,” criticizing the move in an open letter and later filing an amicus brief with the appeals court supporting lawsuits against the ban. More than 130 companies, mostly tech, large and small, signed the brief.

Sam Altman, president of the startup incubator Y Combinator, who was one of sternest critics of the ban, said of the decision, “I don’t think we deserve credit, but I’m happy we were able to provide some small amount of help.”

Box Inc. Chief Executive Aaron Levie, who had previously called the ban immoral, illogical and “antithetical to the principles of America,” said the court’s decision “reaffirms that when we mobilize, whether as companies, nonprofits or individuals, there are avenues for our values to be upheld.”

Trump reacted on Twitter, stating, “See you in court, the security of our nation is at stake!” That could mean that the administration plans to escalate the case to the Supreme Court. But it also could come back with a modified order to try to skirt the court decision.

Photo: Gerson Galang via Flickr