June 26, 2018:

US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Trump Administration's Travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority countries.

Lower courts had deemed the ban unconstitutional, but US Apex Court has reversed this decision in a 5-4 ruling announced on Tuesday.

Ban prohibits most people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen from entering the US.

Travel Ban has been widely criticised by Refugee and Human Rights groups.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for conservative majority, which stated that Travel ban was "squarely within the scope of Presidential authority".

Chief Justice also rejected arguments that it was based on the fact that the targeted countries were mostly Muslim.

Chief Justice Roberts stated that,"The Proclamation is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices. The text says nothing about religion."

In Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she added that Court failed to uphold the religious liberty guaranteed by First Amendment.

Justice Sonia further added that,"It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States' because the policy now masquerades behind a facade of national-security concerns."

Her dissent states that,"a reasonably observer would conclude that [the ban] was motivated by anti-Muslim animus".

Current version of ban prevents most immigrants, refugees and visa holders from five Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen - as well as North Korea and Venezuela from entering the US.

But the restrictions on North Korea and Venezuela were not part of the legal challenge.

Ban allows for waivers on a case-by-case basis, but applicants who cannot afford an attorney to go through the waiver process will likely be unable to immigrate to the US, state Immigration Advocates.

Justice Stephen Breyer noted in his dissenting opinion that State Dept. reported that only two waivers were approved out of 6,555 applicants during the first month of the travel ban.

Source BBC

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