Trump hails Supreme Court's support for travel ban
Washington, June 27 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed the Supreme Court ruling that travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries is lawful and termed it "a tremendous victory" and "moment of profound vindication".
In a 5-4 opinion, the court found that Trump's executive order on the immigration restriction fell "squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the INA (the Immigration and Nationality Act)".
"The [order] is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
"The text says nothing about religion." Roberts wrote, rejecting claims that the ban was motivated by religious hostility.
"Today's Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution," Trump said in a statement.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the US. In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country," he added.
Trump said the ruling "is also a moment of profound vindication" for his government "following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country", Efe reported.
"As long as I am President, I will defend the sovereignty, safety, and security of the American People, and fight for an immigration system that serves the national interests of the United States and its citizens. Our country will always be safe, secure, and protected on my watch," he said.
The case has been central to the White House immigration policy, presenting a key test of Trump's campaign promise to restrict immigration and secure the US borders, Xinhua reported.
Trump has signed three versions of executive orders on immigration restrictions targeting several Muslim-majority countries. The initial order, signed soon after he took office in January last year, led to days of nationwide protests and chaos at airports across the country.
The third version of Trump's travel ban barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries, namely Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It also adds a ban on travelers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and government officials from Venezuela.
The lower courts had ruled that all three versions either violate federal law or are unconstitutional.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
