Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump's travel ban as it makes its way through lower courts

• The US Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to enforce its travel ban on six majority-Muslim countries.
• The order is currently working its way through the lower courts, and the high court will still likely rule on its legality once the new version reaches their docket.

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The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six Muslim-majority countries.

The justices said in an order Monday that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through lower courts.

The ban applies to approximately 150 million potential travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts have held that people from those nations with a claim of a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the US could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said that they would have left the lower court orders in place.

Federal appeals courts in Washington state and Virginia are scheduled to hear arguments this week on the legality of the ban, which critics argue is discriminatory and unconstitutional. The government has maintained that the president has broad authority on matters of immigration and national security. 

This comes days after Trump provoked international outrage by retweeting three Islamophobic videos, purporting to show Muslims committing violent acts, posted by a leader of a British far-right group. The British prime minister, Theresa May, released a statement saying it was "wrong" for Trump to have tweeted the videos.

The full text of the Supreme Court order is below:

"The application for a stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted, and the District Court’s October 17, 2017 order granting a preliminary injunction is stayed pending disposition of the Government’s appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of the Government’s petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is sought.

If a writ of certiorari is sought and the Court denies the petition, this order shall terminate automatically. If the Court grants the petition for a writ of certiorari, this order shall terminate when the Court enters its judgment.

In light of its decision to consider the case on an expedited basis, we expect that the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch.

Justice Ginsburg and Justice Sotomayor would deny the application."

SEE ALSO: The White House urged the Supreme Court to allow Trump's travel ban to take effect in full

DON'T MISS: The Trump administration violated 2 court orders after the first travel ban, inspector general says

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source http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-supreme-court-allows-full-enforcement-of-trump-travel-ban-2017-12