WASHINGTON - After a series of stinging legal defeats, US President Donald Trump's administration hopes to convince a federal appeals court that his travel ban targeting six-Muslim majority countries is motivated by national security, not religion.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled on Monday to examine a ruling that blocks the administration from temporarily barring new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It's the first time an appeals court will hear arguments on the revised travel ban, which is likely destined for the US Supreme Court.

Pointing to the Republican's promises on the campaign trail to bar Muslims from entering the United States, a federal judge in Maryland found in March that the policy appeared to be driven primarily by religious animus.