SUPREME COURT/TRAVEL BAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Supreme Court justices asked tough questions of both sides on Wednesday [4-25-18] in weighing President Trump’s authority to impose a travel ban, which restricts entry into the United States from several predominantly Muslims nations, after the president promised during his campaign to impose a ‘Muslim ban.’ By the end of the argument, though, it was hard to identify five justices ready to vote to strike down the ban. Immigrant rights groups had hoped that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. or Justice Anthony M. Kennedy would join the court’s four-member liberal wing to oppose the ban. But their questioning was almost uniformly hostile to the challengers. Several justices asked Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco about the government’s national security justifications for the travel ban, and pressed him to explain why the restrictions should not be seen as tainted by religious animus.”
–Adam Liptak and Michael D. Shear, “Trump’s Travel Ban Faces a Supreme Court Test,” The New York Times online, April 25, 2018