"Donald J. Trump is calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. They enslave women and they murder gays. I don't want them in our country."
So said US President Donald Trump on the campaign trail last year, pledging to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
Now he's had a partial victory, with the US Supreme Court narrowing the scope of earlier lower-court rulings that blocked his travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries and agreeing to hear his appeals in the cases.
The ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen means that immigrants and refugees will now have to prove they have a connection to the US through family, school or employment.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the President is pleased with the unanimous decision.
"It's a positive step forward, as I mentioned at the outset, the Department of Justice in particular is reviewing this, in terms of both its implementation and its impact. So I don't want to get too far ahead of all these brilliant legal minds as they review the impact but I think, as I noted, I think the president feels very, very pleased with the 9-0 decision."
There were no dissents among the nine justices in the unsigned decision, although three of the conservative justices say they would have gone a step further by granting Mr Trump's request to implement the bans fully while the legal battle continues.
Refugee advocacy groups have criticised the decision.
Lara Finkbeiner, from the International Refugee Assistance Project, says the ruling puts lives at risk.
"The fact that this is a temporary suspension gives us no comfort at all. First of all, by its own accord, the executive order can be extended for periods of time so we actually don't know how long this is going to take place and even in the meantime, our clients lives are in danger right now. They're facing ongoing threats and by delaying their cases for ten days, or 20 days or 120 days, that means they can be killed while they're waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision on this case."
The court did not give Mr Trump everything he wanted.
His March 6 order called for a blanket 90-day ban on people from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on all refugees to enable the government to implement stronger vetting procedures.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says the Supreme Court decision is likely to cause a lot of confusion.
"You know I can't really say I am surprised with the Supreme Court. Some of them are going to be in line with the President here on the travel ban. I think the ruling of lifting the travel ban while the case is being heard is going to cause a lot of confusion and problems at airports. It's unfortunate that we're painting every person from six Muslim communities, countries as terrorists. It's not the case. It think it's unfortunate what is happening right now in our country. I think there is an opportunity to have stronger enforcement at our borders and that's the way to handle this, and that's what we have done in the past. An outright travel ban in the 21st century it doesn't seem to make sense to me."
The Supreme Court version of Mr Trump's ban will take effect before the justices hear full arguments in October.
Last week Mr Trump said the ban would take effect 72 hours after being cleared by courts.
