LAW OF THE LAND

Supreme Court Says Trump Admin Can Temporarily Restrict Asylum Requests

The court ruled to temporarily undo a lower court's decision to block the new asylum rule from taking effect.

The Supreme Court decided to temporarily permit nationwide enforcement of a Trump administration rule that prevents Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S., The Associated Press reports. The rule, which would deny migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they did not seek asylum in other countries they crossed through, was previously blocked by a lower court. Many of the those crossing through countries to get to U.S. borders are Central American migrants, though the rule affects migrants from other parts of the world as well.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor reportedly dissented from the ruling, with Sotomayor claiming the rule goes against ‘‘longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution.’’ “It is especially concerning, moreover, that the rule the Government promulgated topples decades of settled asylum practices and affects some of the most vulnerable people in the Western Hemisphere—without affording the public a chance to weigh in,” Sotomayor wrote.