US president Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban on five Muslim-majority countries was yesterday upheld by the highest court in the land.
The ban prohibits most people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as North Korea and Venezuela, from entering the US.
Lower courts had deemed the ban unconstitutional, but the US Supreme Court reversed the decision in a 5-4 conservative majority ruling.
The travel ban, which the Supreme Court allowed to take effect in December, has been widely criticised by refugee and human rights groups.
Trump described the decision as a “tremendous success” for the nation and constitution.
“We have to be tough, we have to be safe and secure,” he said.
Iraq and Chad were banned in previous versions. Iraq was removed for having “a close co-operative relationship with the US” and Chad for having “sufficiently improved its practices”.
The Trump administration said that the ban was the result of carefully considering national security interests, but critics argued it was fulfilling his campaign promise for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.
Critics have pointed that major attacks such as the 9/11 in New York, the Boston marathon bombing and the Orlando nightclub attack were carried out by people from countries not on the list, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan, or by US-born attackers.