PREZ LAUDS BAN RULING
Ramping up for midterm elections, President Trump embraced yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court travel ban ruling as a political victory as much as a legal one — as Democrats, activists and even five of the court’s justices decried statements Trump made about the ban as anti-religious.
“The ruling shows that all the attacks from the media and the Democratic politicians were wrong, and they’ve always been very wrong,” Trump said after the 5-4 ruling upholding the third iteration of his travel ban order as within the president’s statutory and constitutional authority.
Trump also called the decision “profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country.”
Trump also linked the travel ban with his hard-line stance on southern border crossings, making clear that immigration would be a central campaign issue as he stumps for Republicans in the midterms.
Democrats and activists worried the ruling would embolden Trump and his supporters to double-down in support for what opponents see as bigoted policies and rhetoric in order to appease Trump’s base.
Bay State U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark said the ruling allows “the president’s personal racial and religious biases and prejudices to dictate our immigration policy.”
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (DMinn.), one of two Muslim House members, likened the court’s ruling to the “Dred Scott decision, in which a partisan court reached a discriminatory holding to support a futile attempt at suppressing human dignity.”
“The dustbin of history awaits this one too,” Ellison tweeted.
The court considered Trump’s campaign statements and tweets to weigh whether the ban was, as challengers claimed, a move to ban Muslims under the guise of national security. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority that the challengers failed to make the case.
Still, five of the court’s justices expressed dismay at Trump’s statements, including his campaign call for a “complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing voter, joined the majority opinion in full. But in a concurrence, Kennedy admonished Trump’s tone as against the spirit — if not the letter — of the Constitutional ban on religious discrimination.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent, called Trump’s order a result of “anti-Muslim animus” and blasted the majority for “ignoring the facts, misconstruing our legal precedent, and turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering.”