Supreme Court To Hear Trump Travel Ban Case

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump's deeply contested travel ban executive order — a version of which sparked waves of protest and legal challenges nearly a year ago — will be ruled on by the Supreme Court in June.

The travel ban is now in its third instantiation, after two previous versions were dogged by lawsuits. Opponents said the order, which specifically bars travel to the United States by a handful of Muslim-majority countries, is discriminatory and unconstitutional. They also argue that the order is an attempt to codify the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" Trump promised as a candidate.

The president and his supporters argue the order is necessary to fight the threat of terrorism.

The justices plan to hear argument in April and issue a final ruling by late June on a Trump policy that has been repeatedly blocked and struck down in the lower courts.

The latest of those rulings came last month when the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that the travel ban Trump announced in September violates federal immigration law.

The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, also is considering a challenge to the ban.

Last month, the high court said the ban could be fully enforced while appeals made their way through the courts.

Under the latest version of the ban, travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen are blocked from entering the U.S. North Korea and Venezuela, which have both drawn international criticism in the past year, are the only two non-Muslim countries included.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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