SC revives Trump’s travel ban
WIN FOR PRESIDENT The ban can be enforced for travellers from targeted countries without bona fide relationship with any person or entity in the US
WASHINGTON : The US Supreme Court on Monday partially reinstated President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries, before examining the case in full this autumn.
Trump hailed the decision as a victory for national security. “Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision is a clear victory for our national security,” he said in a White House statement.
“It allows the travel suspension for the six terror-prone countries and the refugee suspension to become largely effective. As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm.”
The ban -- put on hold by lower court rulings -- can be enforced for travellers from the targeted countries “who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” until the court hears the case in October, the Supreme Court justices ruled.
The court tempered its ruling by saying the ban could not be implemented for now against people who have personal links to the United States, citing the examples of foreign nationals wishing to visit family or students accepted to attend a university. But the Supreme Court’s decision nonetheless marks a win for the Republican leader, who has insisted the ban is necessary for national security, despite criticism that it singles out Muslims in violation of the US constitution.
Trump had suffered a series of stinging judicial setbacks over the ban, with two federal appeals courts maintaining injunctions on it.
Those courts had argued the president had overstepped his authority, and that his executive orderdiscriminatedagainsttravelers based on their nationality.
Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project who argued one of the appellate cases brought against the ban, said he hoped the court’s decision would mark a step towards ending an “indefensible and discriminatory ban.”
Trump’s revised measure, seeks to bar from US entry travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as suspend the entry of refugees for 120 days.