President Trump calls travel ban ruling 'a great victory' for the country

June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 WKXA

Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump declared victory Tuesday following the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling upholding his order restricting travel from some Muslim-majority countries, saying it amounts to “a great victory” for the country.

“We have to be tough and we have to be safe and we have to be secure,” Trump said in a meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House. “At a minimum we have to make sure that we vet people coming into the country, we know who is coming in, we know where they’re coming from – we just have to know who is coming here.”

In an earlier paper statement, the president described the ruling as “a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution” as well as “a moment of profound vindication,” taking aim at Democrats and the mainstream media who he said “refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country.”

The travel ban upheld by the Supreme Court was the third attempt by the administration following more than a year and a half worth of legal battles with civil rights groups and federal courts who had succeeded in either reversing or rolling back provisions in the previous bans.

The current iteration indefinitely restricted most travel from the countries of Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen – describing those countries’ vetting systems as inadequate. In April, the U.S. lifted travel restrictions on Chad.

Plaintiffs in the case, dubbed Trump v. Hawaii, argued that the third ban was merely an extension of the first proposed travel ban signed by the president one week after his inauguration, which sought to immediately suspend admission into the country by individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries. It also halted refugee admissions for 120 days and indefinitely banned Syrian refugees, but contained an exception for members of “religious minorities.”

Democrats have argued that first ban, with its surprise rollout and rocky implementation that initially drew protests and chaos to several airports across the country, was a direct descendant of the president’s campaign promise calling for a “complete shutdown on Muslims” coming to the U.S.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, in siding with the administration, said the latest ban fit within the president’s broad national security powers regarding immigration admissions to the U.S., and that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate “a likelihood of success on the merits of their constitutional claim” to overrule the president.