By Barbara Franz
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the most recent version of the Travel Ban, upholding Hawaii vs. Trump.
Reflecting the majority opinion, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the president had ample statutory authority to restrict entry of certain aliens on national security grounds.
The court rejected the argument that Trump’s executive order exceeded his lawful powers and violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination. Roberts argued that Trump’s order did not mention religion and therefore cannot be motivated by hostility toward Muslims.
Adam Server of The Atlantic contends that by that logic, the Jim Crow-era literacy tests that disenfranchised black voters would have been constitutional, because they could potentially also have targeted illiterate white voters.
In her blistering dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor likened the decision to the Supreme Court’s infamous 1944 ruling in Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
The decision appears to convey the court’s approval for the administration to discriminate, and to turn prejudice into public policy.
Sotomayor included in her opinion quotations made by Trump, such as “Islam hates us,” and she argued that “a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus.”
The most recent version banned most citizens of Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Chad and North Korea from entering the United States. (Chad was removed from the list in April.)
Visitors from Iraq and Sudan were banned under previous versions, but now are allowed.
While the Travel Ban does not only affect refugees, a recent Pew Research Center study shows that the number of Muslim refugees entering the U.S. has declined the most.
According to the study, more than any other religious group, the number of Muslim refugees admitted to the United States in the first half of fiscal 2018 has dropped from the previous year, falling to nearly 1,800 compared with the roughly 22,900 admitted in all of fiscal 2017.
These changes account for a far larger share of Christian refugees admitted than Muslims in the first half of fiscal 2018 (63 percent vs. 17 percent).
The top four countries of refugee admissions for the first half of 2018 were the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bhutan, Myanmar/Burma, and Eritrea. None of them are Muslim majority countries. The Supreme Court’s ruling may as well buttress the administration in its prejudice against religious and other minorities.
As with the other highly anticipated ruling the high court handed down last week, the 5-4 vote was cast along party lines, and should not have come as a surprise.
The conservative majority ruled that it is unconstitutional for public employee unions to require fees from workers who do not want to join the union. This is what the national push for a so-called right-to-work law is all about: Allowing any worker who is not a member to get out of paying fees–and also crippling the reach and negotiation power of unions.
(In another First Amendment case, the court struck down a California law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to give women information about ways to end their pregnancies.)
It has become clear that the United States Supreme Court has become an instrument of American neo-liberalism, advocating the interests of large corporations and American capitalism.
This has been the case, if not since Bush v. Gore in 2000, then at least since the 2010 landmark case Citizens United, which opened the door for unlimited election spending by corporations.
The Supreme Court today has become an instrument to limit the reach of multiculturalism, socioeconomic equity and democracy in order to prop up white nationalism, the wealthiest 10 percent (or 1 percent?), and elite rule (oligarchy).
I guess we need to look elsewhere to ensure the re-emergence of egalitarian, tolerant, democratic principles in this oldest democracy on the planet. I, for one, am looking forward to November 6. Happy July 4, Morristown!
Barbara Franz, Ph.D., is a political science professor at Rider University, and a Morristown resident.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed above are the author’s, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
