The Supreme Court has upheld Donald Trump’s travel ban on several mostly Muslim countries, rejecting claims the policy discriminated on religious grounds. 

The decision was passed 5-4, splitting the justices along political lines and handing a timely boost to the US president, who greeted the news by tweeting “wow!”

 

The ruling was on the third version of Mr Trump’s travel ban.

The first version, introduced in early 2017, caused chaos at airports and was eventually rewritten twice. 

The policy’s origins date back to Mr Trump’s presidential campaign when he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. 

The current ban applied to five countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen – but also North Korean and Venezuela, which do not have Muslim majorities. 

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018

Supporters of the policy – which includes waivers, meaning some people from those countries can still move to America – argued it was needed for national security and is not anti-Muslim. 

They cited that fact that Chad, a sixth Muslim-majority country initially on the list, had been removed after improving its processes. 

However critics insisted that Mr Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric showed that the travel ban was effectively discriminating on religious grounds. 

Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion for the five conservative justices, argued the travel ban was “neutral” and did not exceed the powers of the presidency. 

BREAKING: The Supreme Court upholds Trump's third travel ban. Chief Justice John Roberts writes the decision, holding in the 5-4 decision that Trump exercised his broad statutory authority to "suspend entry of aliens into the United States.

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) June 26, 2018

Mr Roberts said the policy had "a legitimate grounding in national security concerns”, while insisting the court would express “no view on the soundness” of the travel ban. 

He said of Mr Trump’s past comments: “The issue before us is not whether to denounce the statements. It is instead the significance of those statements in reviewing a Presidential directive, neutral on its face, addressing a matter within the core of executive responsibility.”

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to the Supreme Court, said in a dissenting statement: "History will not look kindly on the court’s misguided decision today, nor should it.”

She said that based on the evidence in the case "a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus".

She also likened the case to the discredited Korematsu V. US decision that upheld the detention of Japanese-Americans during Second World War. Mr Roberts rejected the comparison. 

Mr Trump responded by saying the “tremendous victory” was “a moment of profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country”. 

Impact of Trump travel ban on tourism

However leading Democrats were left appalled by the decision. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, told CNN: "It is not within the President’s authority to discriminate on religion…[the ruling] is simply ignoring the truth of what the President is trying to do."

Cory Booker, the Democrat senator for New Jersey tipped to run for president in 2020, said Mr Trump’s immigration policies amounted to “moral vandalism” and expressed disappointment. 

“We just cannot walk away from the fact of how this all started, which was the president had said that he wanted to ban Muslims from this country,” Mr Booker said. 

“We’re a nation who has had Muslims as part of our nation thought-out our history. Great scientists, great athletes. Mohammed Ali, one of our greatest heroes. 

“This is a person that wants to use something that our founder’s rejected, which is a religious test.”

In a separate development, Kevin McAleenan, the US customs and border protection commissioner, said he had temporarily stopped prosecuting parents who illegally cross the southern border with children. 

The announcement rolls back a key element of Mr Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy and echoes the “catch and release” stance of Barack Obama, which the president has previously criticised. 

Donald Trump's travel ban