President Trump and his administration scored significant legal victory on Tuesday after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump Travel Ban saying it is “squarely within the scope of Presidential Authority under Federal Law” to do.
The United States Supreme Court. Credit: AP
According to the ruling, the ban which limits travel to the United States from Libya, Iran, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Venezuela is now the official law of the land.
The 5-4 decision said President Trump’s Travel Ban was both constitutional and legal, a major blow to a series of rulings by Barack Obama-appointed liberal activist Judges in lower courts who have sought to block his Executive Orders.
President Trump tweet after the Supreme Court ruling on his Travel Ban on Tuesday, June 26 2018. Credit: Twitter
The ruling is a significant victory for the White House at a crucial time when the country is battling the issue of immigration and an influx of illegal migrants into the country from its southern border with Mexico.
Unlike previous rulings by activist judges in lower Courts, the Supreme Court ruling refused to hold the President’s tweets or other campaign comments against him now that he is in office. The ruling also said rejected the notion that the Travel Ban was a “Muslim ban” nor that it was extreme, saying that it was in fact facially neutral.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Trump Travel Ban 5-4 on Tuesday, June 26 2018. Credit: AP?Andrew Harnik
In response, President Trump twitted, “SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TAVEL BAN. Wow!”
After calling the Supreme Court ruling a “moment of profound vindication,” the White House released a statement saying, “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution.
“The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Credit: Getty Images/Mark Wilson
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “The text says nothing about religion,” pointing out that only about 8% not the majority of the world’s Muslim majority lived in the affected countries.
Justice Roberts further also pointed out that the Trump Administration relied on countries previously singled out by the previous Obama Administration and Congress in drawing up the Travel Ban list.
The Supreme Court ruling says President Trump has the power to decide who comes or denied entry into the country. Credit: DM
Going even further, Justice Roberts said Trump was acting within the scope of purview given to him by the Congress to determine in the name of National Security who can enter or denied entry into the country. As far as the ruling was concerned, Trump acted within those limits and gave good enough reason for doing so.
“Under the 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,” wrote the Justice.
“We simply hold today that plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their Constitutional claim.”
The upholding of the Trump Travel Ban 3.0 after the first two were challenged and blocked by liberal activist judges.
Map depicting the original 6 countries listed on the Temporary Travel Ban. Credit: FOX
The first Executive Order on the Travel Ban ordered a week after President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 was blocked after immigrants advocates and activist judges challenged it.
A second revised Travel Ban with narrow restrictions issued in March 2017 which removed Iraq while maintaining Libya, Somalia, Syria and Iran on the list of targeted countries was also blocked by the same liberal activist groups and judges.
The third revised version now aptly termed Travel Ban 3.0 and which was upheld by the Supreme Court on Tuesday dropped Sudan from the list and added other two non-Muslim countries: Venezuela and North Korea.
The Trump Administration is expediting the removal of illegal immigrants from the U.S. Credit: AP/Ringo H.W. Chiu
With immigration now a hot topic in the United States, President Trump has decided to make it a central campaign issue for the upcoming mid-terms this November and this ruling has given him and the Republican Party the boost they need.
On Sunday, Trump called for people who enter the United States illegally and are clogging the nation’s immigration system to be removed from the country and be sent back immediately to where they came from without any judicial process – after likening them to “invaders” breaking into the country.
A family of migrants at the U.S-Mexico border after their asylum claim was denied. Credit: Reuters
“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” he said in one of a series of tweets on Sunday morning.
“Our immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of these people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years,” he said, pointing to the broken Immigration System.
A migrants caravan headed for the US border from Central America pictured in mid April 2018. Credit: Reuters
“Immigration must be based on merit – we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!” be added.
The proposed expedited removal of immigrants from the country comes amidst a crisis involving an influx of migrants and unaccompanied minors at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee-holding facility,” he said at the White House. “It won’t be.”
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