US Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban
5-4 ruling hands president ‘one of his biggest wins since taking office’

The US Supreme Court has upheld Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
The court accepted 5-4 the government’s argument that the ban was within the president’s power to craft national security policy and his authority to “suspend entry of aliens into the United States”. The court rejected claims that it was discriminatory and motivated by religious hostility.
The ban targets travellers from Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, and also includes limited sanctions against North Korean and Venezuelan citizens.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The vote, which brings to an end more than a year of legal back-and-forth, is “a significant victory for the administration and a blow to anti-discrimination advocates” reports The Guardian. The Independent said the court had handed the president “one of his biggest wins since taking office”.
The administration has strongly denied this is a Muslim ban, but Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Immigrant Rights Project, said that the ruling was one of the Court's “great failures”, and likened the decision to the ruling which upheld Japanese-American internment during World War Two.
CNBC says the case has been “central” to the Trump administration's immigration policy, “presenting a key test of the president's campaign promise to restrict immigration and secure America's borders”.
The administration has faced stinging criticism over its policy of separating immigrant families crossing the US-Mexican border, but the BBC’s Anthony Zurcher says this ruling marks a “significant victory for Mr Trump - and for presidential power to set immigration policy in general - albeit by the narrowest of margins”.
The decision once again highlights the Republican slant on the Supreme Court and follows a number of highly contentious rulings this week which have split along party lines.
On Monday the court voted 5-4 to uphold gerrymandered election maps in Texas, ignoring evidence that the maps were drawn to minimise the power of minority voters, also declining to take up a North Carolina gerrymandering case.
Both of decisions “damage voting rights” says David Leonhardt in the New York Times, and were only made possible “because of the unprecedented actions of Republican senators” who blocked Barack Obama’s choice to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, ensuring the 5-4 Republican majority.
This has prompted University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck to write that the court’s current term, “is shaping up to be one of its most ideologically one-sided (and consistently conservative) sessions in a long time.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Scottish hospitality shines at these 7 hotels
The Week Recommends Sleep well at these lovely inns across Scotland
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
Scientists invent a solid carbon-negative building material
Under the radar Building CO2 into the buildings
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: April 1, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Law firms: Caving to White House pressure
Feature Trump targets major law firms tied to his past investigations
By The Week US Published
-
Venezuelan deportees: Locked up for tattoos?
Feature A former pro soccer player was deported after U.S. authorities claimed his tattoo proved he belonged to a Venezuelan gang
By The Week US Published
-
Rule of law: Are we in a constitutional crisis?
Feature Donald Trump defies federal court order to halt deportation flights to El Salvador
By The Week US Published
-
Trump 'not joking' about unconstitutional 3rd term
Speed Read The president seems to be serious about seeking a third term in 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'We should end this betrayal of man's best friend'
Instant Opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What is Starmer's £33m plan to smash 'vile' Channel migration gangs?
Today's Big Question PM lays out plan to tackle migration gangs like international terrorism, with cooperation across countries and enhanced police powers
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why does Donald Trump want Greenland?
The Explainer Trump is not the only US president who has tried to gain control of Greenland
By The Week UK Published
-
'How quickly misogynistic videos show up in users' TikTok and YouTube feeds'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published