NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is joining more than a dozen other states in urging an appeals court to reinstate President Donald Trump's revised travel ban.

State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, a Collierville Republican considering a bid for governor next year, lauded Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office for filing a brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The states argue the ban falls within the president's authority to block foreigners from the U.S. They also reject the argument that it targets Muslims.

Norris last year sponsored legislation to allow the General Assembly to hire its own attorneys to file a legal challenge seeking to halt the federal refugee resettlement program in Tennessee after Slatery and Gov. Bill Haslam declined to sue over the issue.