On Tuesday 26 June, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of president Donald Trump’s travel ban after months of legal battles, which targets several Muslim-majority countries, coming as a massive shock to anti-discrimination advocates.
This ban, favored five to four, upholds the government’s position that the president has the authority to “suspend entry of aliens into the United States.”
Trump took to Twitter just hours after the ruling to hail his appreciation of the decision, tweeting: “SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow!”
Of the decision, Trump stated, “The ruling shows that all the attacks from the media and the Democrat politicians were wrong, and they turned out to be very wrong.
“If you look at the European Union, they’re meeting right now to toughen up their immigration policies because they’ve been over-run, they’ve been over-run.
“And frankly, a lot of those countries are not the same places anymore.”
Despite the decision, criticism flooded in from chief justice John Roberts. “The president of the United States possesses an extraordinary power to speak to his fellow citizens and on their behalf,” he said. “Our presidents have frequently used that power to espouse the principles of religious freedom and tolerance on which this nation was founded.”
One of the lawyers who voted against the ruling, Neal Katyal, tweeted “Disappointed by the decision, but proud to be part of a judicial process that closely reviews and checks presidential overreach. Americans don’t exclude b/c of nationality or religion. POTUS shouldn’t take ruling as approval to continue attacking our constitution. I will always fight it.”
The travel ban currently affects travelers coming in from Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia—predominantly Muslim areas of the world.
President Trump controversially implemented the first travel ban just a week after his internment into office in January 2017.
