Supreme Court to take up Trump travel ban

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon agreed to review the legality of President Trump’s latest travel ban.

The decision comes about two months after the court granted the administration’s request to fully reinstate the ban after lower courts blocked the administration from banning people with a bona fide relationship to a person to entity in the United States.

The high court’s decision signaled the justices may ultimately uphold the new targeted restrictions, which ban nationals from the six majority-Muslim countries – Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad.

The administration is appealing the latest decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled Trump’s ban violated federal immigration law.

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that Trump’s latest ban exceeded the scope of his authority on immigration and violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition on nationality-based discrimination in the issuance of immigrant visas. 

The Supreme Court had agreed to hear two cases from the state of Hawaii and the International Refugee Assistance Project challenging the previous order, which banned nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen for 90-days and excluded all refugees for 120 days.

But the court ultimately tossed out the cases after the order expired. The justices said the issue was now moot.

Hawaii is now challenging the indefinite and targeted restrictions Trump issued in September, in which he eliminated Sudan from the list of banned countries, but added Chad, North Korea and individuals affiliated with certain government agencies in Venezuela.

The lower court bans did not block the restrictions on Venezuelan officials or immigrants from North Korea.

-Updated 3:17 p.m.