President Donald Trump called Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling on the travel ban "a tremendous success, a tremendous victory for the American people and our Constitution."
"We have to be tough and we have to be safe and we have to be secure, at a minimum we have to make sure ... we know who's coming in," he said, adding, "We just have to know who's coming here."
Speaking in the Cabinet Room during a luncheon with Republican members of Congress, Trump said that the ruling shows that attacks from the media and Democrats regarding the policy "turned out to be very wrong," adding that Republicans want "strong borders, no crime."
Trump also touted wall funding in his opening remarks, noting that he's going to ask for an increase in wall spending "so we can finish it quicker."
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 along partisan lines with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the conservative majority.
The ruling sends a strong message that Trump has broad powers under immigration law to act to protect national security and that statements made during a campaign may not be legally determinative of the President's intent.
"The Proclamation is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority," Roberts wrote.
This is the third version of the travel ban. It was issued in September -- after previous bans had ricocheted through the courts -- and restricts entry from seven countries to varying degrees: Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela. Chad was originally on the list but it was recently removed after having met baseline security requirements.
Challengers, including the state of Hawaii, argued that the travel ban exceeded the President's authority under immigration law as well as the Constitution. They also used Trump's statements during the campaign, when he called for a ban on travel from all Muslim-majority countries, but Roberts dismissed those concerns.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a blistering dissent, said the court was wrong to ignore Trump's various comments.
"The majority here completely sets aside the President's charged statements about Muslims as irrelevant," she wrote. "That holding erodes the foundational principles of religious tolerance that the court elsewhere has so emphatically protected, and it tells members of minority religions in our country 'that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.'"
