The Supreme Court of the United States slapped down the Fourth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal. The Supreme Court ruled, 9-0, that President Trump may bar entry, on a temporary basis, to any "foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States." According to the six-member majority, "Denying entry to such a foreign national does not burden any American party by reason of that party's relationship with the foreign national." The Court added that "The interest in preserving national security is 'an urgent objective of the highest order.' " To prevent shenanigans, the Court specified that it is not a "bona fide relationship" for "a nonprofit group [e.g., the Catholic Church] devoted to immigration issues . . . to contact foreign nationals from the designated countries, add them to client lists, and then secure their entry by claiming injury from their exclusion."
Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have lifted the temporary restraining order with regard to all parties, not just to those who lack a "bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States." It's heartening to see Justice Gorsuch agreeing with Justice Thomas. I am praying for one more Gorsuch from President Trump.
It's a great day for law and order. It's a very bad day for the politicized judges on the Fourth and Ninth Circuits and for the partisan political hacks who call themselves law professors. The case will be heard on its merits in October. I expect the Court to rule by at least 5-4 that the entire executive order comports with the Constitution. All of the justices have already ruled, either implicitly or explicitly, that the Government (i.e., President Trump) "is likely to succeed on the merits." Will the judges on the Fourth and Ninth Circuits be chastened by this rebuke? Of course not. They're ideologues first and judges second, which is to say that they're not judges at all.
Addendum: Law professor Jonathan Turley nails it.
