High court blocks Prez asylum ban

The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration on Friday from enforcing a controversial and constitutionally questionable asylum ban at the U.S. southern border.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court left in place a ruling issued by a federal judge in California blocking President Trump from refusing asylum to any immigrants who have been found to enter the country illegally.

Trump derided the career California jurist who issued the ruling as an “Obama judge” and expressed hope the ban would be reversed by the Supreme Court, but Chief Justice John Roberts — the court’s sole swing vote — sided with his four liberal-leaning colleagues in deeming the ban unconstitutional.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, took the extraordinary step of casting her vote from a hospital bed in Manhattan, where she had undergone surgery for two cancerous growths in her left lung, according to NBC News.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three other conservatives sided with the administration’s plea to resume the practice.

The President issued an executive order implementing the ban last month and justified it with fear-mongering and false statements about a caravan of Central American migrants camping out on the Mexico side of the border with hopes of filing for asylum in the U.S.

No opinions were appended to the brief Supreme Court decision but longstanding U.S. and international asylum statutes affirm migrants with credible fear of social, political or religious persecution have the right to claim asylum, regardless of status or how they entered the country.

Following Trump’s “Obama judge” knock, Roberts took the extremely unusual step of publicly rebuking the President.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts, who was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2005, said in a statement. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”

“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts,” the President tweeted in response, “but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.”

A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the latest ruling.