US Supreme Court partially reinstates Trump travel ban

AFP: The US Supreme Court on Monday partially reinstated President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries, before examining the case in full this autumn.

The Trump administration’s ban – put on hold by lower court rulings – can be enforced for travellers from the targeted countries “who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” until the court hears the case in October, the justices ruled.

The court tempered its ruling by saying the ban could not be implemented for now against people who have personal links to the United States, citing the examples of foreign nationals wishing to visit family or students accepted to attend a university.

But the Supreme Court’s decision nonetheless marks a win for the Republican leader, who has insisted the ban is necessary for national security, despite criticism that it singles out Muslims in violation of the US constitution.

Trump had suffered a series of stinging judicial setbacks over the ban, with two federal appeals courts maintaining injunctions on it.

Those courts had argued the president had overstepped his authority, and that his executive order discriminated against travelers based on their nationality. Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project who argued one of the appellate cases brought against the ban, said he hoped the court’s decision would mark a step towards ending an “indefensible and discriminatory ban.”

“The Supreme Court now has a chance to permanently strike it down,” Jadwat said in a statement.

Trump’s revised measure, announced in March, seeks to bar from US entry travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as suspend the entry of refugees for 120 days.

The original measure, issued by executive order in January and almost immediately blocked by the courts, also included Iraq on the list of targeted countries and had imposed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.

US says it will work with travel industry to implement travel ban

Washington (Reuters): The US Department of Homeland Security said it would implement the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban in a professional and public manner after the Supreme Court’s earlier on Monday allowed its partial implementation of the ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees.

“The implementation of the Executive Order will be done professionally, with clear and sufficient public notice, particularly to potentially affected travelers, and in coordination with partners in the travel industry,” the department said in a statement.