The US Supreme Court has ruled President Donald Trump's travel ban on six mainly Muslim countries can go into full effect, pending legal challenges.
The decision is a boost for Trump's policy against travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
The ruling covers the third version of the directive that the president has issued since taking office.
Seven of the nine justices lifted injunctions on Monday imposed by lower courts against the policy.
Only liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have allowed the president's order to remain blocked.
Federal appeals courts in San Francisco, California, and Richmond, Virginia, will hear arguments this week on whether the latest iteration of the policy is lawful.
The Supreme Court noted it expects those courts to reach decisions "with appropriate dispatch".
The case will eventually end up back in the Supreme Court.
Monday's decision suggests America's top judicial body may ultimately rule in favour of the administration, say legal analysts.
The president's directives have each been frustrated by the courts to some degree.
In January, he signed an order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspending all refugee entry. The measure, which also banned Syrian refugees indefinitely, prompted protests and multiple legal challenges.
A revised version in March removed Iraq from the list and lifted the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. By June, the Supreme Court allowed most of it to go into effect, including a 120-day ban on all refugees entering the US. But it granted a wide exemption for those with a "bona fide" connection to the US.
President Trump's third order was announced in late September. It added non-Muslim-majority nations North Korea and Venezuela, provisions which lower courts have allowed to proceed.
The US president insisted his ban was necessary for national security and pointed to terrorist attacks in Paris, London, Brussels, and Berlin as evidence.
 Credit: BBC
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