On Monday, the US Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's travel ban to take effect pending appeal. In a 7-2 ruling, justices granted his administration's request to lift two injunctions imposed by lower courts that had partially blocked the ban — the third version of a policy that Trump first sought to implement a week after taking office.

Modified after failed versions that had sought to exclude people from six Muslim-majority nations, the temporary ban covers people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad, with North Koreans and certain government officials from Venezuela added to the current version.

The bans were roundly criticized as discriminatory, and courts ruled that Trump could not prevent people who had "bona fide" relationships with people in the United States from entering the country. That included grandparents, cousins and other relatives whom Trump had sought to keep out. In a pair of single-page orders on Monday seven of the US's top nine justices put a halt to lower court rulings that had blocked parts of the ban while appeals continue in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia — with rulings expected later this week. Two of court's liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, said they would have denied the administration's request.

Courtesy:DW