The Supreme Court has ruled on President Trump’s travel ban, but the ruling is far from a final word.

The court agreed to consolidate two cases challenging the ban and hear them in the fall. And it modified the injunctions that had been issued by lower courts. Where lower courts had forbidden the government to enforce the travel ban against anyone, the Supreme Court said the ban could be enforced against foreigners who lack a strong relationship with a person or institution in this country.

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One of the criteria for issuing or staying an injunction while a case is still pending is whether the side seeking the order or stay has a good enough chance of winning. But the court, in its unsigned opinion, did not discuss whether the lower courts were wrong to think the people challenging the travel ban had strong cases. Only Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote separately, and Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, who joined his opinion, said modifying the orders suggested the government was likely to win.

The court focused on how the orders were crafted, and how the lower courts weighed the harms to both sides. It gave significant weight only to harms to people and institutions in this country, not foreigners overseas.

The ban was supposed to be a temporary measure — one key section was to last 90 days, another 120 — to allow the government to review vetting procedures. There’s a question as to whether those time periods include the time when the ban was blocked by the courts. But either way, the government is now free to proceed with its review, and at least 90 days will have expired by the time the court can give the challenge full consideration.

Commentators on the right have hailed the decision as a victory for the President. Pundits on the left say it was no victory at all. Actually, it was a punt. It was the Supreme Court refusing to be rushed into a final word.

First Published July 3, 2017, 4:00 a.m.