Trump Travel Ban Can Be Fully Implemented, Supreme Court Says

WASHINGTON, DC — The Supreme Court decided Monday to allow the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries, even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts.

The action suggests the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September.

The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had ruled people from those nations with a claim of a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded. The new ruling overturns these exceptions.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have left the lower court orders in place.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin was among those challenging the Trump administration's latest version of the ban. He urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration's plea to be allowed to fully enforce the ban, telling the court that "the justification for that dramatic relief has only weakened" because the latest order, unlike its two predecessors, is permanent.

"This is not a ruling on the merits, and we continue our fight," the ACLU, which has opposed the ban, said in a statement. "We are at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to argue that the Muslim ban should ultimately be struck down."

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, will be holding arguments on the legality of the ban this week.

Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted it expects those courts to reach decisions "with appropriate dispatch."

Quick resolution by appellate courts would allow the Supreme Court to hear and decide the issue this term, by the end of June.

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