Supreme Court Muslim Ban Decision

Faith leaders and partners around the world respond to the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the Muslim ban.

• Take Action: Tell Congress No Muslim Ban Ever

• Faith Leaders respond to Supreme Court decision on the Muslim ban

• US Council of Muslim Organizations Decries Muslim Ban

• Council for Social Justuce Press Conference on Supreme Court Decision on the Muslim Ban

• Muslim Ban Decision Talking Points

 

Faith Leaders respond to Supreme Court decision on the Muslim ban

Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump Administration in Donald J. Trump, President of the United States v. State of Hawaii, upholding a de facto Muslim ban that targets our Muslim neighbors on the basis of their religious affiliation. As we have said time and time again, targeting people based on their faith is not in keeping with the American ideals that we as American faith communities seek to uphold and advance. Today’s ruling will long be a stain on our country’s moral conscience, joining the woeful ranks of the Korematsu and Dred Scott rulings. This decision continues the abhorrent impacts that the Ban has already had on individuals, families and communities.

Let us be clear that in this decision, the Court’s ruling does not speak for American faith communities. We reject exclusionary policies that discriminate on the basis of religion, race, culture, or country of origin, including this Muslim Ban. The rights of all faith communities are put in jeopardy when one faith community is attacked, and we will continue to stand alongside our Muslim and refugee neighbors and to work for a country that upholds its own highest ideals.

Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, Director of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, and Steering Committee Member of Shoulder to Shoulder writes, “We are a nation of immigrants and a nation which claims values that call us to welcome the immigrant, refugee and alien fleeing persecution and praying for a better life. Scripture demands that we open the doors of our hearts and our homeland to provide a safe haven for those who seek it. Today’s ruling is discouraging but we must continue to say no to hateful and harmful policies which discriminate against families and especially children.”

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, Presiding Bishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and member of Shoulder to Shoulder’s Steering Committee writes, With this court decision, we are again reaching a point where the assertion of “national security” by the executive branch of government results in the rejection of all other considerations in national policy discussions. Our social statement also reminds us: “In bondage to sin, we fall captive to fear.” Jesus taught us to love one another. The social statement calls us to “a dynamic vision of difference in unity.” Her full statement can be found here.

Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of National Religious Campaign Against Torture and Co-Chair of Shoulder to Shoulder’s Executive Committee states, “It is constitutionally dangerous, and morally wrong, for this hyper-partisan Supreme Court to back President Trump’s full frontal attack on religious freedom when it comes to Muslims and refugees.”

The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign’s 35 national denominational and faith-based partners know from past experience that the people of the United States, when working together, are able to overcome and overturn discriminatory laws and policies. The road to justice for all is a long one, and we are in it for the long haul.

Founded in November 2010, Shoulder-to-Shoulder is an interfaith organization dedicated to ending anti-Muslim sentiment by strengthening the voice of freedom and peace.

 

US Council of Muslim Organizations Decries Muslim Ban, Affirms Justice for All

The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the largest coalition of leading national, regional, and local Muslim-American organizations, considers the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today to uphold President Donald Trump’s disgraceful and bigoted Muslim Ban a sad and regrettable one. 

“This is a tragic day for America and affirms to the world that the torch of liberty, tolerance and justice – once held high in this nation – has been cast down,” said USCMO Secretary General Oussama Jammal.

“The decision to empower Presidential fear mongering contradicts America’s signature stance astride the most welcoming land in the world – a country known for inspiring nations to ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …’. This decision willfurther tarnish America and its peoples dimming prestige on the world stage,” said USCMO board member and Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) Executive Director, Khalil Meek

History will judge this Court harshly and its decision to endorse discrimination against a religious community – Muslims – as a travesty of justice. This decision will take its place of infamy alongside past morally repugnant High Court verdicts, including Dred Scot v. Sanford (the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court), Korematsu v. U.S. (which interned Japanese Americans), and Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal).

The great majority of Americans – who overwhelmingly and commendably oppose this thinly veiled vilification of Muslims and their religion – instantly voiced their outrage at this decision and their intent to fight this unfairness until they once again vindicate this nation and its open culture.

The American Muslim community stands arm-in-arm with their fellow Americans, ready to work to uplift those who are sinking into a dark place of hate and incivility that is now almost becoming governing policy and law.

 

Council for Social Justice Press Conference on Supreme Court Decision on the Muslim Ban

 

Muslim Ban Decision Talking Points

The Supreme Court has turned a blind eye to the Trump administration’s blatant bigotry. This decision green-lights religious and ethnic discrimination that runs counter to the inclusionary principles that our country aspires to.

• Rather than reinforcing the notion that America welcomes people regardless of where they were born, what they look like or how they pray, the Supreme Court instead upheld a ban, driven by anti-Muslim sentiment, that devalues equality

The Supreme Court has been wrong on major decisions before, and the Roberts court joins that sad legacy today.

• Consider Dred Scott when the Court ruled in favor of slavery or Korematsu when the Court permitted the incarceration of thousands of people based on their Japanese ancestry. In this case, Trump set out to ban Muslims and the highest level of our judiciary just allowed it to happen, empowering this president and future administrations to discriminate on the basis of religion.
• Today’s decision attacks Muslim communities and opens the door to government-and court-sanctioned discrimination of other ethnic and religious groups.

The Trump administration has an anti-family agenda—and the Supreme Court just endorsed it

• The court’s decision today immediately causes irreparable damage to Muslim families and communities.
  • This ban has already caused tremendous suffering for countless families and entire communities. By upholding it, the justices are keeping spouses apart from each other and separating children from their parents.
  • They’re also depriving patients of life-saving health care and blocking access to education.
• The Muslim Ban is part of President Trump’s larger, un-American war on immigrant families, including his administration’s inhumane separation of children and parents at the border.

Our fight continues.

• The fights for religious freedom and justice for all immigrant families do not end here. The right to live in peace and be treated justly no matter one’s race, ethnicity or religion is too important to let one person, one president, one decision destroy it.
• We will continue to fight for Muslim families and communities, to pursue legal avenues on behalf of impacted people and to demand that legislators take action to end the Muslim Ban.
• Most importantly, we will continue organizing, mobilizing and defending Muslim communities from bigoted policies—whether they are endorsed by the Supreme Court or not.