The United States supreme court has ruled a travel ban proposed by president Donald Trump on visitors from six mainly Muslim countries can go into full effect.
The decision is pending legal challenges.
The move means travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen will face restrictions on their entry to the United States.
The ruling covers the third version of the directive that the president has issued since taking office.
It is a significant boost for president Trump, in a week that also saw major tax reform passed.
Seven of the nine justices lifted injunctions imposed by lower courts against the policy.
Only liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor argued the order should remain blocked.
Federal appeals courts in San Francisco, California, and Richmond, Virginia, will hear arguments later this week on whether the latest iteration of the policy is lawful.
The case will eventually end up back in the Supreme Court.
In January, president Trump 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