US Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban
5-4 ruling hands president ‘one of his biggest wins since taking office’
The US Supreme Court has upheld Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
The court accepted 5-4 the government’s argument that the ban was within the president’s power to craft national security policy and his authority to “suspend entry of aliens into the United States”. The court rejected claims that it was discriminatory and motivated by religious hostility.
The ban targets travellers from Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, and also includes limited sanctions against North Korean and Venezuelan citizens.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The vote, which brings to an end more than a year of legal back-and-forth, is “a significant victory for the administration and a blow to anti-discrimination advocates” reports The Guardian. The Independent said the court had handed the president “one of his biggest wins since taking office”.
The administration has strongly denied this is a Muslim ban, but Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Immigrant Rights Project, said that the ruling was one of the Court's “great failures”, and likened the decision to the ruling which upheld Japanese-American internment during World War Two.
CNBC says the case has been “central” to the Trump administration's immigration policy, “presenting a key test of the president's campaign promise to restrict immigration and secure America's borders”.
The administration has faced stinging criticism over its policy of separating immigrant families crossing the US-Mexican border, but the BBC’s Anthony Zurcher says this ruling marks a “significant victory for Mr Trump - and for presidential power to set immigration policy in general - albeit by the narrowest of margins”.
The decision once again highlights the Republican slant on the Supreme Court and follows a number of highly contentious rulings this week which have split along party lines.
On Monday the court voted 5-4 to uphold gerrymandered election maps in Texas, ignoring evidence that the maps were drawn to minimise the power of minority voters, also declining to take up a North Carolina gerrymandering case.
Both of decisions “damage voting rights” says David Leonhardt in the New York Times, and were only made possible “because of the unprecedented actions of Republican senators” who blocked Barack Obama’s choice to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, ensuring the 5-4 Republican majority.
This has prompted University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck to write that the court’s current term, “is shaping up to be one of its most ideologically one-sided (and consistently conservative) sessions in a long time.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Antony Gormley's Time Horizon – a 'judgmental army' of 100 cast-iron men
The Week Recommends Sculptures are 'everymen questioning the privilege of their surroundings' at the Norfolk stately home
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
'King's horses take free rein through London'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Is pop music now too reliant on gossip?
Talking Point Taylor Swift's new album has prompted a flurry of speculation over who she is referring to in her songs
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Who will win the 2024 presidential election?
In Depth Election year is here. Who are pollsters and experts predicting to win the White House?
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
National Enquirer helped Trump in 2016, ex-boss says
Speed Read David Pecker says the tabloid published fabricated content to hurt Trump's rivals
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Sitting in judgment on Trump
Opinion Who'd want to be on this jury?
By Susan Caskie Published
-
Is the Supreme Court about to criminalize homelessness?
Talking Points The court will decide if bans on outdoor camping are 'cruel and unusual'
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
How could the Supreme Court's Fischer v. US case impact the other Jan 6. trials including Trump's?
Today's Big Question A former Pennsylvania cop might hold the key to a major upheaval in how the courts treat the Capitol riot — and its alleged instigator
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
'A direct, protracted war with Israel is not something Iran is equipped to fight'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
'Good riddance to the televised presidential debate'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published