THE US SUPREME Court has ruled that the US government could fully enforce a ban on travellers from six mainly Muslim countries pending appeal, backing President Donald Trump in the year-long battle over the controversial measure.

The court stayed a lower court’s October ruling that had blocked implementation of the ban on visitors from Chad, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Somalia and Libya, as a legal challenge to it continues in federal appeals court.

The court ruled that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts.

Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted it expects those courts to reach decisions “with appropriate dispatch”.

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