WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court is going to allow portions of President Trump’s travel ban to go into effect against six majority-Muslim countries. The highest court in America said on Monday they will hear oral arguments on the case this fall.
The court is allowing the ban to go into effect for foreign nationals who lack any “bona fide relationship with any person or entity in the United States.” The court, in an unsigned opinion, left the travel ban against citizens of six majority-Muslim on hold as it applied to non-citizens with relationships with persons or entities in the United States, which includes most of the plaintiffs in both cases.
The court gave examples of such formal relationships: students accepted to American universities; or an employee who has accepted a job with a company in the United States, the court said.
Trump called the decision “a clear victory for our national security.”
“As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm,” he added in a statement. “I want people who can love the United States and all of its citizens, and who will be hardworking and productive.”
This is the first time the high court has weighed in on the travel ban, and a partial victory for the Trump administration, which has been fighting lower court rulings that have blocked the ban from taking effect. Justices did not address Trump’s tweets which have caused legal problems for his administration previously. Those tweets seemed to suggest that Trump wanted to ban Muslims from coming into the country but just needed a legal way of going about it.
The ban, which bars people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days — outside of the “bona fide” relationship exception — could take effect in as little as 72 hours.
