June 26, 2018, may go down in history as a dark day in the record of the U.S. Supreme Court. Today the conservative majority on the Court went through odd contortions to uphold President’s Trump’s racist Muslim ban in the Trump v. Hawaii case.
Justice Sonia Sotomayer, in her blistering dissent, showed stark parallels between this case and the flawed ruling in the 1940’s Korematsu v. United States case that upheld Japanese internment during World War II. In both cases, the Court accepted the unproven national security excuse to support the racist behavior of the United States government.
Amazingly the Court played down the anti-Muslim hostility of Trump while just last week the Court upheld discrimination in the wedding cake baker case because a couple of Civil Rights Commissioners in Colorado expressed what the Court felt was “impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs” of the baker. That so-called hostility seemed to be a molehill compared to the mountain of antagonism toward Muslims that Trump exhibited for years.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayer referred to a brief by the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center (MJC). MJC made the following argument: “MJC submits this brief to document the President’s extensive and explicit record of hatred against people of the Muslim faith, his clear wish to curtail their rights, and his specific, sustained promise to inhibit their entry to the U.S.”
What follows is my summary of the instances of Trump’s hatred of Muslims and his intent to ban them as found in the MJC brief.
• Trump advocated that Muslims are a “Problem.”
On December 10, 2015, Mr. Trump tweeted three separate statements referring to a “massive Muslim problem,” praising an author for acknowledging “Muslim problems,” and associating Muslims with terrorism.
Several times throughout 2015 and 2016, Mr. Trump declined to accept that a distinction could be drawn between radical Islam and Islam itself.
• He spread Anti-Muslim propaganda.
Trump often repeated his lie that he saw Muslims in large numbers on 9/11 celebrating as the World Trade Center came crashing down.
• He advocated closing and surveilling Mosques.
In 2015–on October 21, November 6, November 21, and December 7–Trump called for the surveillance of mosques, again equating the Muslim religion with hatred and terror.
• He advocated required registering of American Muslims.
Mr. Trump repeatedly advocated for registering all Americans who choose to practice the Muslim faith. When confronted with comparisons to the Nazis’ registration of Jewish people, Mr. Trump expressed no concern and continued advocating for a Muslim registry.
• He advocated profiling Muslims.
On June 19, 2016, Mr. Trump stated that it was “common sense” to profile Muslims. He later went further, stating on September 19, 2016, that there is “no choice” but to profile Muslim people.
• The President specifically pledged to restrict the entry of Muslims under the guise of a neutral order.
On 11 different dates between October 12, 2015, and July 21, 2016, Trump discussed his plan to ban Muslims.
• The President reaffirmed his discriminatory motive since being elected.
In 2017, after he became President, Trump expressed his wish for a Muslim ban at least nine times.
As the old saying goes, Trump’s anti-Muslim position is as clear as the nose on your face. How the conservative five on the Supreme Court could not see their nose must be chalked up to their ideology. With this ruling comes an explicit license to discriminate and that cannot be a good thing.