Supremes let part of travel curb stand

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a part of President Trump’s refugee and travel ban can go into effect, while agreeing to hear the constitutional merits of the entire executive order this fall.

The court ruled that the Trump administration can begin to ban foreign nationals from a half-dozen targeted Muslim countries “who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity” in the U.S., but upheld lower courts’ injunctions keeping the ban from going into place for anyone with ties to the U.S. until the Supreme Court hears full arguments on the ban in a few months.

Trump hailed the decision as “a clear victory for national security.”

But the ruling is a tempered win for the President. He has seen lower court after court strike down the ban, though many of those who would have been barred under the full ban have U.S. ties and won’t be affected.

“An American individual or entity that has a bona fide relationship with a particular person seeking to enter the country as a refugee can legitimately claim concrete hardship if that person is excluded. As to these individuals and entities, we do not disturb the injunction,” the court’s majority wrote. “But when it comes to refugees who lack any such connection to the United States, for the reasons we have set out, the balance tips in favor of the government’s compelling need to provide for the nation’s security.”

That view was supported by six of the court’s members.

Its three most conservative — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch (photo) — wrote that they would have let the entire ban go into effect while the case is pending.

The original ban, put in place shortly after Trump’s inauguration, barred everyone from seven countries from entering the U.S. even if they had green cards, valid visas or refugee status. That led to chaos at airports across the country as hundreds of people with valid paperwork were detained, some were sent back and others weren’t allowed to board their flights to the U.S. A revised travel ban, released in March but held up in the courts, can now partly go into effect this week. Travelers with green cards and visas, and refugees with strong U.S. ties, like a close family member or approval to study at an American university, will still be able to enter the country, but others won’t. Trump called the decision “a clear victory for our national security.” “It allows the travel suspension for the six terror-prone countries and the refugee suspension to become largely effective,” he said in a statement. “My No. 1 responsibility as commander-inchief is to keep the