FOREIGN: US Supreme Court Affirms President Trump’s Travel Ban

The United States Supreme Court, ruling 5-4, has upheld President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries, rejecting a challenge that it discriminated against Muslims or exceeded his authority.

The decision on Tuesday was the court’s first substantive ruling on a Trump administration policy.

According to the Associated Press, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by his four conservative colleagues.

Roberts wrote that Presidents have substantial power to regulate immigration as he rejected the challengers’ claim of anti-Muslim bias.

Roberts was careful not to endorse either Trump’s provocative statements about immigration in general and Muslims in particular.

“We express no view on the soundness of the policy,” Roberts wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent that based on the evidence in the case “a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus.”

She said her colleagues arrived at the opposite result by “ignoring the facts, misconstruing our legal precedent, and turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering the Proclamation inflicts upon countless families and individuals, many of whom are United States citizens.”