The White House praised the Supreme Court for its decision upholding President Donald Trump's travel ban on five Muslim nations, North Korea, and Venezuela.
"It is the President’s sacred duty to take action to ensure that those seeking to enter our country will not harm the American people," the White House stated. "The ruling affirms the legality of the President’s actions, and will allow the federal government to ensure the security of the United States."
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Presidential Proclamation “is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority” and noted that it is “expressly premised on legitimate purposes.
The White House called the travel ban "common sense security standards."
"The Presidential Proclamation on enhanced vetting is keeping America safe by ensuring that minimum security and information-sharing standards are met by countries around the world," the White House said.
"The Presidential Proclamation is making the United States, and countries around the world, safer by restricting travel from countries that don’t meet minimum security and information-sharing standards.
"The Proclamation helps ensure that foreign governments provide the United States with the information needed to vet their nationals."
The ban, which originally applied to Muslim-majority nations Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, had been subject to legal challenges since Trump first signed the order. The ban was later expanded to include sanctions on non-Muslim nations North Korea and Venezuela. The African nation of Chad was temporarily included in the ban before being removed in April.
The US Supreme Court had previously allowed the ban, put in place by Trump by presidential proclamation in September, to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues.
In February, the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Virginia declared Trump’s travel ban unconstitutional. The decision came a month after the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from a similar decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
In addition, the attorneys general of 16 states filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court against the travel ban