Supreme Court upholds travel ban News
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Supreme Court upholds travel ban

The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 Tuesday in Trump v. Hawaii [SCOTUSblog materials] that President Donald Trump’s proclamation [text] restricting entry from particular Muslim-majority countries was within in his authority.

The court also found that plaintiffs challenging the proclamation were unlikely to succeed on their claim that the ban violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion:

Under these circumstances, the Government has set forth a sufficient national security justification to survive rational basis review. We express no view on the soundness of the policy. We simply hold today that plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their constitutional claim.

Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas filed concurring opinions. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a dissent, joined by Justice Elena Kagan. Justice Sonia Sotomayor also filed a dissent, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

This was the third version [JURIST report] of the controversial travel ban [JURIST news archive], which faced numerous protests and legal challenges.