Supreme Court Upholds Travel Ban

06/26/2018

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reversed a District Court's preliminary injunction against President Trump's latest travel ban. Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the court. While the Chief Justice acknowledged previous comments made by President Trump, he concluded the government "has set forth a sufficient national security interest". Chief Justice Roberts noted that since the first travel ban, the government has removed three Muslim-majority nations from the list of countries subject to travel restrictions. He also noted the latest version of the travel ban includes exceptions to the travel ban and allows travel on nonimmigrant visas for most affected countries.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sotomayor, wrote, "The United States of America is a Nation built upon the promise of religious liberty. Our Founders honored that core promise by embedding the principle of religious neutrality in the First Amendment. The Court's decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle. It leaves undisturbed a policy first openly advertised as a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States' because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns."

The Supreme Court previously stayed the District Court's injunction pending review. The case, Trump, et al. v. Hawaii, et al. now returns to the lower court for further proceedings.