RICHMOND, Va. — The first federal appeals court to hear a challenge to President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban appeared unconvinced that it should ignore the Republican’s promises on the campaign trail to bar Muslims from entering the country.

An attorney for the president urged the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to focus on the text of the religiously neutral executive order rather than use campaign statements to infer that the policy was driven by anti-Muslim sentiment.

But that idea was challenged by several members of the 13-judge panel, which is examining a ruling that blocks the administration from temporarily barring new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

“Is there anything other than willful blindness that would prevent us from getting behind those statements?” asked Judge Henry Floyd, who was appointed to the court by President Barack Obama.

The 4th Circuit ruling is crucial for Trump, whose travel ban is expected to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. The 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to examine the revised travel ban, which Trump’s administration rewrote in an attempt to thwart legal challenges. It’s unclear when the judges will issue their written decision.

Trump’s attorneys likely see the moderate court as friendlier territory than the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which conservatives have long attacked for being too liberal. The 9th Circuit is scheduled to hear another challenge to the revised travel ban next week.

The 4th Circuit “is historically quite conservative and quite pro-government, so for the Trump administration to lose before the full 4th Circuit I think would be quite a body blow for the second version of the executive order,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas law school.

A federal judge in Maryland who blocked the revised travel ban in March cited Trump’s comments as evidence that the executive order is a realization of Trump’s promised Muslim ban.