— The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would listen to arguments surrounding President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban during its October sitting.
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The decision came down as justices announced their final opinions of the term ahead of a summer break. Justices will review arguments over whether the ban violates constitutional protections against religion-based discrimination, among other things.
The court also agreed to lift preliminary injunctions that blocked the government from barring foreign nationals without connections to the U.S. from entering the country.
Justices said in their filing Monday that upholding the injunctions “would appreciably injure (America’s) interests without alleviating obvious hardship to anyone else.”
The court left in place injunctions that affect “foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."
Trump hailed the high court’s order as a “clear victory for our national security.” He said in a statement that his “number one responsibility” is to keep the American people safe.
>> Read the Supreme Court order
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court on June 1 after a lower court blocked the travel ban from going into effect.
The administration argued that an injunction issued by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in May was too broad in blocking the government from banning foreign travelers from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
The travel ban was the second executive order addressing travel to the United States signed by the president after key provisions of the first were blocked by a federal court.
Trump signed his original executive order in January, barring foreign nationals from seven countries Muslim-majority from entering the U.S. for 90 days and suspending the U.S. refugee program for 120 days.
A federal judge blocked several key provision of the ban a week later. An appeals court declined to lift the order and the government announced it would put together a new travel ban.
The second version of the executive order was signed March 6 and barred foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Major parts of the second executive order were blocked by a federal court in May, which determined that the government was likely to lose its case, because its arguments appeared to target people based on their religion rather than on national security concerns.
The president has numerous times argued that his travel ban is necessary to ensure the safety of Americans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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