CAIR-NY Denounces Supreme Court’s Decision Allowing Muslim Ban to Remain in Effect
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(NEW YORK, NY, 6/26/2018) — The New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Muslim Ban 3.0 to remain in effect.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s injunction that had—until December 2017—prevented the Trump Administration from using Muslim Ban 3.0 as a basis for denying visas to foreign nationals from eight affected countries.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote: ““A reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was driven primarily by anti-Muslim animus, rather than by the Government’s asserted national-security justifications. Even before being sworn into office, then-candidate Trump stated that ‘Islam hates us.’”
"Today thousands in NY and more across the nation unite in rejection of the SCOTUS ruling and to affirm our continued struggle against President Trump's attack on our nations religious freedom, said CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher. Where the SCOTUS ruling has failed to safeguard religious freedom, the people of our communities remain undeterred to fight against discrimination and abuse, even if that abuse stems from the highest office in the land. Families egregiously separated and denied entry just because they are Muslim can rely on the fact that Americans will forever insist on the promise of equality for all."
Today, our highest court ratified the lowest sort of bigotry,” said CAIR-NY Legal Director Albert Fox Cahn. “But history teaches us that this fight is far from over. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African Americans ‘had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.’ In1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the imprisonment of more than 120,000 Americans for their Japanese ancestry. Today, that same court upheld President Trump’s Muslim Ban. Like its predecessors Dredd Scott and Korematsu, today’s decision was unjust. And like its predecessors, this ruling will be condemned by future generations as a betrayal of the promise of equality and justice for all. The injustice of the Muslim Ban would have been too extreme for the Court to ignore if it had faced the facts, but they focused on technicalities instead. The ornate wording sounds lovely, but underneath them is a crude truth: the Court didn’t do its job. Today is certainly a setback, but history teaches us that the fight is far from over. Muslim activists and allies will continue to push back against this ban in Congress and use whatever other avenues available in order to achieve justice.”
In its decision, the Supreme Court granted extreme deference to the Trump Administration, which gives the administration the green light to inject discrimination back into our immigration system.
CAIR-NY will be participating in a number of actions today in response to the SCOTUS ruling, including a press conference and rally at Foley Square.
SEE media advisory: https://bit.ly/2KpGpI
SEE #StandWithMuslims rally information: https://www.facebook.com/events/453428295110555
Since the Trump administration’s first attempt to ban Muslim immigration to the United States, CAIR has filed legal challenges to each of the ban’s permutations.
In the Supreme Court, CAIR had filed an amicus brief on behalf of six individuals who successfully obtained an injunction against Muslim Ban 3.0 from a federal court in Maryland.
READ CAIR'S BRIEF: https://tinyurl.com/CAIRAmicusBrief
The brief — filed in the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's decision in February declaring Trump's Muslim ban unconstitutional — states in part: "The injuries suffered by the [plaintiffs] are beyond the pale. If they are beyond the power of the courts to remedy, we fear for what is yet to come.”
[NOTE: CAIR and the Brennan Center for Justice filed the lawsuit in October 2017. On appeal, that case, Zakzok v. Trump, was consolidated with two others and was jointly decided by the Fourth Circuit.]
SEE: 'The Words of the President' Doom Trump Travel Ban, Fourth Circuit Says
In December of last year, CAIR applauded the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' unanimous decision against the Trump administration's "Muslim Ban 3.0."
SEE: CAIR Welcomes Another Court Ruling Against Trump's 'Muslim Ban 3.0'
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprensión mutua.