A young girl dances with an American flag in baggage claim while women pray behind her during a protest against the travel ban imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order, at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas, U.S. January 29, 2017. (Laura Buckman/Reuters)
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration mostly enforce its 90-day ban on travellers from six mostly Muslim countries, overturning lower court orders that blocked it.
The action Monday is a victory for President Donald Trump in the biggest legal controversy of his young presidency.
The court did leave one category of foreigners protected, those “with a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” the court said in an unsigned opinion. The justices will hear arguments in the case in October.
Trump said last week that the ban would take effect 72 hours after being cleared by courts.
The ban would apply to citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The Trump administration said the ban was needed to allow an internal review of the screening procedures for visa applicants from those countries. That review should be complete before October 2, the first day the justices could hear arguments in their new term.
