Supreme Court of The United States, Trump v. Hawaii, 585 (2018)

Entry restrictions to the United States against nationals of eight predominantly Muslim countries: The President is within his authority to act based on national security concerns

Abstract

On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision in Trump v. Hawaii. The Court reversed the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Hawaii v. Trump, which had enjoined the entry restrictions against nationals of eight countries in President Trump’s Proclamation 9645 of September 24, 2017, commonly referred to as the “travel ban”. By a 5-4 majority, the Court’s conservatives concluded that the President had acted within his statutory authority under section 1182(f) of the Immigration and nationality Act (INA) in issuing the suspension of entry provisions in the Proclamation. The Court also held that these entry restrictions did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United Constitution, which prohibits favoring one religion over another. The majority relied heavily on the national security justifications for the ruling.