Supreme Court Allows Trump Travel Ban to Go Into Effect
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration's ban on travel into the US from six countries with majority-Muslim populations can go back into effect while lower courts consider several legal challenges to the federal policy.
Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented from the ruling, which overturned lower courts' injunctions and reinstated the latest version of the White House's ban. The Trump travel policy forbids entry by citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The court said the policy could take full effect, superseding its own previous compromise ruling this summer, which allowed entry by people from the six Muslim-majority nations with "bona fide" relationships to people already in the US, such as grandparents and cousins.
Two appellate courts are scheduled to hear arguments for and against the travel ban this week on an accelerated timeframe meant to allow the Supreme Court to issue its own ruling on the legality of the policy by the end of June 2018. This is the third version of the administration's ban, which it has repeatedly tweaked to try to meet judicial muster.
Observers noted that the court's decision to allow the full ban to take effect bodes ill for opponents of the administration's travel policy, and is likely a sign that the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold it.