Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress, slammed the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to uphold President Donald Trump’s travel ban, saying the ruling “gives legitimacy to discrimination and Islamophobia.”
“Today’s ruling is unjust. Like the Korematsu decision that upheld Japanese internment camps or Plessy v. Ferguson that established ‘separate but equal,’ this decision will someday serve as a marker of shame,” Ellison (D-Minn.) said in a statement. “Until then, we must keep fighting for an America that recognizes that every human life has value and reflects our values of generosity and inclusion for all.”
In a 5-4 vote that broke along partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled that the president’s policy imposing a range of travel restrictions on individuals from five majority Muslim countries, plus North Korea and Venezuela, is within constitutional bounds.
Since it was first imposed in the days immediately following Trump’s inauguration last year, the travel ban has been challenged, struck down and revised multiple times. And while many of the legal challenges focused on the president’s past anti-Muslim rhetoric and the intent behind the ban, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “the text says nothing about religion” and “is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted.”
Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a candidate to be Minnesota’s attorney general, attacked the decision as running contrary to American values.
“Today’s decision undermines the core value of religious tolerance on which America was founded,” he said in his statement. “I am deeply disappointed that this ruling gives legitimacy to discrimination and Islamophobia.”
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