The US Supreme Court has upheld Donald Trump's travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries, handing the president one of his biggest wins since taking office.
 The 5-4 ruling, with the court's five conservatives in the majority, ends – at least for now – a fierce fight in the courts over whether the policy represented an unlawful ban on Muslims entering the country.
Trump can now claim vindication after lower courts blocked a version of his travel ban announced in September, as well as two prior versions, in legal challenges brought by the state of Hawaii and others.
The president celebrated the news in a tweet, writing: "SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow!"
The version upheld by the Court effectively blocks travel from five of the countries in the original executive order: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. It removes restrictions on travel from Sudan from the original order and adds restrictions on visitors from North Korea and Venezuela.
"The President lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings – following a worldwide, multi-agency review – that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
Trump had sought to block travelers from 7 Muslim-majority countries, arguing that the ban was necessary to protect against terrorist violence.
His opponents had however argued that there was scant evidence that terrorists were immigrating from these countries and that Trump had discriminated against a religion by issuing the ban.