AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a coalition to reinstate President Donald Trump's travel ban.

The 12-state coalition filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the nation from terrorism. In it Paxton and others argue the ban provides support to suspend governments that sponsor terrorism.

A federal appeals court ruling last week allowed President Donald Trump's newest version of the ban to partially take effect. That ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the administration to ban people from six mostly Muslim countries unless they have a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the U.S.

Last month, a federal judge in Hawaii had blocked most of Trump's third travel ban just before it was due to take effect. A judge in Maryland separately blocked it to a lesser degree, saying Trump could bar people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen as long as they did not have "bona fide" relationships with people or organizations already in the U.S.

The travel ban also applies to travelers from North Korea and to some Venezuelan government officials and their families, but the lawsuits did not challenge those restrictions.

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to allow the latest travel bank to take effect.