SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1530024042000

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Trump White House's travel ban, ruling that the US President has the authority to ban travellers from certain countries if he thinks that it is necessary to protect the country.The apex court ruling, by a 5-4 Conservative-driven majority, came after lower courts had struck down each of the three versions of the president's travel ban. Expressing the opinion of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the presidential proclamation leading to the ban "is squarely within the scope of presidential authority," while rejecting arguments it was based on the predominant religion of most of the affected countries.Trump's travel ban covered Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, all Muslim-majority countries. Chad was subsequently removed from the list. In addition, the ban also covered North Korea and Venezuela."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," Roberts wrote.The four liberal justices offered a strong rebuttal, recalling Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" and saying that objective "masquerades behind a facade of national-security concerns.""This repackaging does little to cleanse Presidential Proclamation No. 9645 of the appearance of discrimination that the President's words have created. Based on the evidence in the record, a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.Conservative justices disagreed and the 5-4 decision came on the back of Justice Anthony Kennedy's swing vote.President Trump, for once, was lost for words at the Conservative-driven victory. "SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN . Wow!" he tweeted soon after the ruling, with no further comment for the next hour.The White House later released a statement from the President calling the ruling a "tremendous victory for the American people and the constitution.""In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country. This ruling is also a moment of profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country," the statement said.Although the ruling validated the President's statutory authority to make national security decisions in the realm of immigration, the justices drew a line on how far he could go, while referring to Japanese-American internment camps the US set up during World War Two – a crucial topic in the midst of the administration's policy of separating undocumented families coming into the US. which some critics feel could lead to more draconian measures against immigrants."The forcible relocation of U. S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of presidential authority. But it is wholly inapt to liken that morally repugnant order to a facially neutral policy denying certain foreign nationals the privilege of admission," Justice Roberts wrote.The matter went to the US Supreme Court after lower courts, including a US. Court of Appeals in Richmond, concluded on the basis of Trump's tweets and statements that the travel ban was motivated not by national security concerns but by antipathy toward Muslims.But the Conservative majority chose to focus not so much on the Trump's tweets and statements as on the matter of executive responsibility and presidential authority. They concluded that that the Presidential proclamation, viewed in isolation, was neutral and justified by national security concerns.