US Supreme Court allows refugee ban

The US Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to broadly implement a ban on refugees entering the country.

The justices granted a request from the Trump administration to block a federal appeals court decision that, according to the Justice Department, would have allowed up to 24,000 additional refugees to enter the US than would otherwise have been eligible.

The Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday gives Trump a partial victory as the high court prepares for a key October hearing on the constitutionality of Trump's controversial executive order.

Trump signed an order on March 6 that banned travellers from six Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - for 90 days and locked out most aspiring refugees for 120 days in a move the Republican president argued was needed to prevent terrorist attacks. The policy suspended travel to the US from six Muslim-majority countries, and locked out most refugees.

US courts have since limited the scope of that order. In a ruling last week, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of legal US residents would be exempt from the travel ban.

The Justice Department opted not to appeal that part of the 9th Circuit decision.