Legal Opponents Ask Supreme Court to Keep Muslim Ban Blocked

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12, 2017

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Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279

Legal Opponents Ask Supreme Court to Keep Muslim Ban Blocked

LOS ANGELES — Legal opponents of the Trump administration’s Muslim-ban executive order today filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the government’s motion to allow the blocked travel ban provision of the executive order to go into effect and opposing the government’s request for the Supreme Court to take up the case.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today asked the Supreme Court to reject the administration’s request to overrule two lower courts that temporarily blocked a key provision of the order, finding it was likely unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice, on June 2, asked the high court to stay separate decisions from the Fourth Circuit and the district court in Hawaii, and to hear the Fourth Circuit case, International Refugee Assistance Project v. Donald Trump.

In the Fourth Circuit case, NILC and the ACLU are representing the International Refugee Assistance Project, HIAS, and several individuals harmed by the executive order.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today also upheld a separate nationwide injunction on the Muslim ban in the case of Hawaii v. Trump, affirming the majority of the lower court’s ruling blocking key provisions of the executive order finding that it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The following is a statement from NILC Legal Director Karen Tumlin:

“President Trump—before and after being sworn in, and under the false pretense of national security—made clear his desire to shut Muslims out of our country. Within days of taking office, his administration delivered an unconstitutional policy to enact his discriminatory whims, creating an untenable civil and human rights crisis that left people fleeing for their safety stranded abroad and in airports, separated families, and authorized border officials to detain hundreds of people with permission to be in the United States.

“Americans, outraged by this blatant attempt to legalize discrimination, took to the nation’s airports and our streets and appealed to their elected representatives to make their voices heard. Then, after the courts confirmed that the policy was unlawful, Trump did it again, changing slightly the contours of the Muslim ban in his version 2.0 but not its discriminatory intent.

“As the courts have found time and time again, condemning people because of where they are from or how they pray violates our core American values and the law. Thinly veiled, government-sanctioned bigotry will not stand.

“The Supreme Court, as the ultimate arbiter of our constitutional rights and protections, must uphold this fundamental principle and reject the government’s request to let Trump’s discriminatory Muslim ban go into effect. As a country, we must address matters of national security based on evidence and never single out an entire group based on their faith, their country of origin, or their skin color.”

Copies of today’s filings are available at

• https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Trump-v-IRAP-Brief-in-Opposition-2017-06-12.pdf and
• https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Trump-v-IRAP-Opposition-to-App-to-Stay-2017-06-17.pdf.

Read more about the case at www.nilc.org/irap-v-trump/.

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