There is much to regret about the rollout and rhetoric of the Trump administration’s 2017 “Muslim travel ban,” which would have more accurately and usefully been called a pause on travel from countries with terrorism problems. But an unintended good effect of that policy and political debacle, given the coronavirus outbreak in China, may be the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii.

Executive Order No. 13769, Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States, rested on statutory bedrock, 8 U.S. Code § 1182, Inadmissible aliens. In a 2018 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court stated that the plain language of Section 1182 vests the president with authority and broad discretion to restrict the entry of people he finds detrimental to U.S. interests, including for risks related to communicable diseases of public health significance.