SCOTUS Upholds Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban In 5-4 Vote

NBC News reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s restriction on travel to the United States from a handful of Muslim countries on Tuesday, giving the White House its first high court victory on the merits of a Trump initiative.

After a series of federal court rulings invalidated or scaled back earlier versions of the travel ban, Monday’s win for the administration ended 15 months of legal battles over a key part of the president’s immigration policy, which opponents attacked as a dressed up form of the Muslim ban Donald that Trump promised during his 2016 campaign.

Imposed last September by presidential proclamation, the latest version maintains limits on granting visas to travelers from five of the seven countries covered by the original executive order on travel — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It lifts restrictions on visitors from Sudan, and it adds new limits on North Korea and Venezuela.


UPDATE: Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven reacts.



“This is a dark day for the United States, as shameful as the internment of Japanese-Americans and the doors slammed shut to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. President Trump’s Muslim ban has already done immense harm to thousands of people, some trying to flee violence, others cruelly separated from their families, and it’s heartbreaking that the Supreme Court did not put an end to this injustice.

“This month the Court expressed deep concern about the slightest perceived animosity toward a Christian baker, but today is untroubled by the President of the United States singling out Muslims for unequal treatment. This is more than hypocritical; it threatens the foundation of bedrock American principles that government cannot show favor or disfavor to any religion. As a queer woman and a Jew, I am outraged and frightened.

“The LGBT community knows what it’s like to be red meat for a demagogue’s base. Future generations will ask us what we did to object. We stand in solidarity with our Muslim family – straight and gay – and pledge our continued support to fight the ban and the stigma, discrimination, and violence it helps encourage.”