The U.S Supreme Court on ruled on Monday to allow President Donald Trump temporary bans on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries until it reviews the matter later this year.
The court also allowed ban on all refugees to go into effect for people with no connection to the U.S while agreeing to hear his appeals in the closely watched legal fight.
Reuters reported that it narrowed the scope of lower court rulings that had completely blocked Trump’s March 6 executive order.
The court said it would hear arguments on the legality of one of Trump’s signature policies in his first months as president in the court’s next term, which starts in October.
It granted parts of his administration’s emergency request to put the order into effect immediately while the legal battle continues.
Two U.S appeals courts had upheld lower court decisions halting the ban to allow legal challenges on the basis of religious discrimination.
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court.
The March 6 executive order had banned the new visas from being issued to people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.
It also sought to halt issuances of new refugee admissions from around the world for 120 days.
The order was however blocked by federal judges before going into effect on March 16 as planned.
Trump issued the order amid rising international concern about attacks carried out by Islamist militants like those in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities.
But critics have called the order a mean-spirited, intolerant and un-American “Muslim ban.”
The state of Hawaii and a group of plaintiffs in Maryland represented by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the order violated federal immigration law.
