Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump's travel ban.  The restrictions were issued out of national security concerns. Travelers from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya were restricted from entering our nation. This is because those nations either sponsor terrorism or harbor inordinate numbers of terrorists. However, critics like the ACLU call it a xenophobic and racist policy. The court rejected those claims and said that the president acted within his authority. We live in a time of global terrorism—a fact that shaped the court's opinion. The FBI has 1,000 open domestic terror investigations so the government is trying to weed out terrorists and keep new terrorists from entering.  This should give us confidence and encouragement.