Supreme Court Gives Way to Trump's Third Attempt at Travel Ban

Supreme Court on Monday allowed full enforcement of Trump travel ban affecting residents of six Muslim countries, thus giving way to Trump's third attempt of banning the six countries, after his second attempt expired in fall this year.

The ban will affect residents from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The justices said the policy could take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts.

North Korea and Venezuela, will remain banned as first announced by the White House in September, according to which, "certain Venezuelan government officials and their immediate family members," will not be allowed to enter the United States. The ban against the two countries took effect October 18.

In the latest ruling, seven of the nine judges lifted the injunctions held by lower courts earlier, putting a hold on the earlier rulings by the lower courts who had halted parts of Trump's travel ban earlier.

Per the earlier ruling, lower courts had ordered people from the six nations placed under ban with a claim of a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country, AP reported, including people who had familial ties, like grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Judges in two judicial circuits — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco — have expressed their doubts over Trump's third executive order which bans almost all travelers from these countries.

Unlike the earlier bans that were temporary, the latest ban is "an indefinite one, deepening and prolonging the harms a stay would inflict," the brief submitted by Washington lawyer Neal K. Katyal who is representing Hawaii stated.

"The government’s national security rationales have also grown more attenuated: The order itself acknowledges that the affected aliens can safely be vetted and granted entry, so long as they seek visas the government prefers, and the government’s delay in requesting a stay makes plain that no exigency warrants this court’s immediate intervention."

Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco representing the Trump administration, said, the latest executive order, followed a “comprehensive, worldwide review of the information shared by foreign governments that is used to screen aliens seeking entry to the United States."

“Based on that review, the proclamation adopts tailored entry restrictions to address extensive findings that a handful of particular foreign governments have deficient information-sharing and identity-management practices, or other risk factors," Francisco added.