Controversial Travel Ban Upheld by Narrow Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court has voted to uphold the current iteration of President Trump’s controversial travel ban by a 5-4 ruling. This decision overturns efforts by lower courts to challenge the ban. President Trump hailed the ruling as “a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution.”

The Supreme Court has upheld President Trump’s controversial travel ban by a narrow majority, NBC News reports. The decision, upheld by a 5-4 ruling, was issued on Tuesday.

This latest version of the travel ban – which was enacted by presidential proclamation – came into force early last autumn. The original iteration of President Trump’s ban, enforced in January of 2017, banned citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya from entering the country for 90 days.

According to the outlet, “the latest version [of the ban] maintains limits on granting visas to travelers from five of the seven countries covered by the original executive order on travel – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It lifted restrictions on visitors from Sudan, and it adds new limits on North Korea and Venezuela.”

Restrictions on citizens of Chad and Iraq – nations which were included in the original ban – have been removed.

This ruling overturns attempts by lower courts to challenge the ban.

Writing on behalf of the conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts was quoted as saying that the ban, “is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices.”

While the ban itself is being seen in some quarters as an example of anti-Muslim bias, Roberts added that, “The text says nothing about religion. Plaintiffs and the dissent nonetheless emphasize that five of the seven nations currently included in the (ban) have Muslim-majority populations. Yet that fact alone does not support an inference of religious hostility…”.

However, in her dissent, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus.”

President Trump has hailed the court’s decision. In an official statement issued by the White House, he said, “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution … In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country.”

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