Supreme Court Decision Buttresses Bigotry, Racism, and Xenophobia Across the United States

By UUSC on June 26, 2018

Today, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a dangerous travel ban prohibiting the entry of nationals from several Muslim-majority countries and further reinforced a toxic and misinformed narrative that President Trump has spread since campaigning for office in 2016.

Under the auspices of affirming Trump’s executive authority, this opinion will stoke the flames of overt Islamophobia and racism to unprecedented levels, as a nation built on the principles of acceptance, liberty, and freedom will become further mired in intolerance, hatred, and isolationism.

Through this ruling, the highest judicial authority in the land has sanctioned a policy that singles out a religious minority for discriminatory treatment. This ruling affirms dangerously broad powers to the executive branch and sets back the ability of the judiciary to provide a check on future abuses of executive power.

Trump has made his bigotry and racism against Muslims plain through explicit and repeated remarks calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” – a statement that remained on Trump’s official campaign website until May 2017.

“This ruling may speak to the court’s consensus and President Trump’s intentions, but it does not speak to what is morally right,” said UUSC Vice President and Chief Program Officer Rachel Freed.

The “Muslim ban” is another way this Administration denies and limits legal immigration and travel to the United States. The Trump administration is implementing a particularly callous and discriminatory immigration agenda that is directly harmful to people of color across the globe.

As Trump has fought to keep this ban in place, updating it no less than three times in an attempt to hide its blatant discriminatory intent and effects, his Administration has continued to wage a broad war against refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers—ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Temporary Protected Status, and dismantling protections that have long ensured the United States is a place of refuge.

Already ensconced in a deeply divisive and heart-wrenching practice of closing our borders to immigrants from Central America and detaining and separating families, the White House’s continued and blatant disregard for anyone who is not white or Christian is on full display and only serves to drag this nation down a path of intolerance, hate, and cruelty.

Today’s decision takes us down a dangerous path, one that will ultimately lead this nation to a destination of utter isolation and hostility to others.