By Adam Liptak and Michael D. Shear // The New York Times
This is an excerpt — read the full article on the website of The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, delivering to the president on Tuesday a political victory and an endorsement of his power to control immigration at a time of political upheaval about the treatment of migrants at the Mexican border.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the court’s conservatives said that the president’s power to secure the country’s borders, delegated by Congress over decades of immigration lawmaking, was not undermined by Mr. Trump’s history of incendiary statements about the dangers he said Muslims pose to the United States.
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In New York City, about three dozen activists, government officials and concerned citizens declared at a midday news conference that the court was on the “wrong side of history.” Bitta Mostofi, the commissioner of immigrant affairs for the New York mayor’s office, called the ruling an “institutionalization of Islamophobia and racism.”
Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, wrote that “today is a sad day for American institutions, and for all religious minorities who have ever sought refuge in a land promising freedom.” The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty said in a statement that “we are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s refusal to repudiate policy rooted in animus against Muslims.”
Mr. Trump’s ban on travel had been in place since December, when the court denied a request from challengers to block it. Tuesday’s ruling lifts the legal cloud over the policy.
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This is an excerpt — read the full article on the website of The New York Times
