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Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Travel Ban, Overrules Korematsu

In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court upheld Trump's odious travel ban. (Opinion is here).

A positive note in the ruling: It finally overrules the Court's ruling in Korematsu v. U.S approving Japanese interment camps. [More...]

The Supreme Court has blinders on. By holding Trump's campaign remarks are not evidence of his discriminatory intent behind the travel ban, the ruling gives Trump a license to publicly spew whatever he wants with no consequences. During his election campaign, Trump specifically promised to ban Muslims from entering the country and relied on Korematsu as precedent:

“I’m calling, very simply, for a shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” Donald J. Trump said on Dec. 8, 2015. It was early in his presidential campaign, and he was saying that sort of thing all the time. On this occasion, though, he also cited a historical precedent. “Take a look at what F.D.R. did many years ago,” Mr. Trump said. “He did the same thing.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a 1942 executive order that sent more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps.

How Korematsu came up in today's opinion. Justice Sotomayor was not fooled by Trump. In her dissent, she compared Trump's travel ban to court's opinion in Korematsu

By blindly accepting the government’s misguided invitation to sanction a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity toward a disfavored group, all in the name of a superficial claim of national security, the court redeploys the same dangerous logic underlying Korematsu and merely replaces one ‘gravely wrong’ decision with another.

Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, responded to Sotomayor's dissent.

The dissent’s reference to Korematsu, however, affords this Court the opportunity to make express what is already obvious: Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history,and—to be clear—“has no place in law under the Constitution.

But putting the official death knell to Korematsu doesn't have much meaning when the Court at the same time refused to kill Trump's discriminatory travel ban. Hiroshi Motomura, a law professor at UCLA and immigration expert says it's really a symbolic gesture.

“Overruling Korematsu the way the court did in this case reduces the overruling to symbolism that is so bare that it is deeply troubling, given the parts of the reasoning behind Korematsu that live on in today’s decision: a willingness to paint with a broad brush by nationality, race, or religion by claiming national security grounds,” he said.

Via CNN, the ACLU on today's ruling:

The American Civil Liberties Union also strongly condemned the court's ruling, writing on Twitter that "this is not the first time the Court has been wrong, or has allowed official racism and xenophobia to continue rather than standing up to it."

Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement that the court's "ruling will go down in history as one of the Supreme Court's great failures."

The makeup of the Supreme Court matters. Federal and Supreme Court judicial appointments are for life. Appointed judges can sit for generations. This isn't just about us. It's about our children and their children.

The way to reverse Donald Trump's policies is to to ensure a Democrat wins in 2020. Elections matter. Trump has had his reelection campaign in place for months (run by the former website builder hand-picked by Jared Kushner to run Trump's digital media campaign in 2016, with an assist from Trump's remaining daughter-in-law.) The campaign touts his record on immigration.

Memo to the Dems: Yes, the mid-term elections are important, but don't put all your eggs in that basket. Agree on a nominee for 2020 early. Don't be fooled that time is on your side. As for those potential candidates sitting on the fence until the mid-terms are over, you need to get cracking now.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Justice (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by FlJoe on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:26:51 PM EST
    Kennedy retires, welcome to our new theocratic/fascist future.

    I am very pis*ed at (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by MKS on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:42:19 PM EST
    those who refused to support Hillary in the General Election because she was not progressive enough, or because of the emails.

      Libertarians and the Left who did not support her are the ones who helped bring this day.  Supporters of Jill Stein, you help do this.

    Parent

    Matthew Yglesias' tweet regarding (5.00 / 2) (#13)
    by vml68 on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 03:46:14 PM EST
    Well (none / 0) (#20)
    by FlJoe on Thu Jun 28, 2018 at 09:44:18 AM EST
    Bernie thinks "we" are winning,
    Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Wednesday bragged to a group of supporters that "in many ways we did win the election."
    and a hearty STFU to him.

    Parent
    There Is A New Book Claiming the Same Thing (none / 0) (#21)
    by RickyJim on Thu Jun 28, 2018 at 10:24:00 AM EST
    How Bernie Won - Inside the Revolution That's Taking Back Our Country-and Where we go From Here by Jeff Weaver.  Of the 14 reviews on Amazon, 13 are 5 star and 1 is 4 star.  I will post a review here when I finish it.

    Parent
    I (none / 0) (#22)
    by FlJoe on Thu Jun 28, 2018 at 10:58:34 AM EST
    get it, let the monsters win and destroy our democracy, so our precious purity ponies can finally have their revolution...or something. I don't to need to read the stinkin book.

    Parent
    Gird your loins, everyone. (none / 0) (#3)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:30:47 PM EST
    This announcement offers Trump an opportunity to nominate a real wingbat as Kennedy's successor, nd ensures that this summer's fireworks won't be solely confined to the 4th of July holiday.

    Parent
    Well, this bodes ill... (none / 0) (#4)
    by desertswine on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:38:46 PM EST
    on many fronts.  I don't see where the Democrats can do anything meaningful to combat this.

    Parent
    With all due respect, desertswine, ... (none / 0) (#8)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 02:27:25 PM EST
    ... you're talking about Democrats in the passive 3rd person, as though you're sitting in the bleachers at AT&T Park one lazy summer afternoon and wondering how the Giants are going to rally from three down in the bottom of the 7th.

    So, how about rephrasing that statement and asking instead, "What are WE going to do about it?" Because speaking as a party official, I can assure you that my fellow party activists and I can't do it alone.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    I'm (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by FlJoe on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 02:31:38 PM EST
    sure our party officials will be telling us that the most important thing is to remain civil, well fk that.

    Parent
    Don't wait for someone else to lead. There are no messiahs in politics. Keep your own counsel, follow your own conscience, find like-minded citizens in your community with whom you can unite in common cause -- and then, fight like all hell to defeat these mofos.

    Parent
    Well, I'll be marching on Saturday... (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by desertswine on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 03:28:51 PM EST
    I'm just trying to think of what my sign will say when I make it.

    Parent
    Great! March - and then ... (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 03:48:43 PM EST
    ... offer to help organize the next one. Also, we need to get people started on voter registration drives. Because unless we plan to next march upon Washington, seize the city, throw the Trumps from the second-story windows of the White House, and toss GOP congressmen out the doors of their respective chambers and down the steps of the U.S. Capitol, we have an election to win.

    Good luck and have fun. And yes, I said and meant "have fun." Look upon this march as an opportunity to make new, like-minded friends. One of the things I do as a party leader is host occasional social gatherings, so that Democrats in my region can get to know one another in a less formal setting, and establish relationships with one another on a basis other than politics. This helps to build camaraderie.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Kennedy had (none / 0) (#5)
    by MKS on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:40:01 PM EST
    been the fifth  vote upholding abortion rights and in favor of marriage equality.  

    Also was the author of the opinion holding it was unconstitutional to criminalize gay sexual activity.

    Parent

    Armando does not disapoint here (none / 0) (#7)
    by MKS on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 01:52:51 PM EST
    He says look beyond this year.  Not liklely to stop GOP.

    He wants to resolve now to pack the Supreme Court a' la FDR with one liberal Justice for every conservative justice Trump appoints.

    Parent

    Armando is ranting. (none / 0) (#10)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 03:14:33 PM EST
    Seriously, this is a time for sober thinking and reasoning, not online insults, fault-finding and criticism. And frankly, I expect more from the 101st "Fighting Keyboardists" than yelling at people to shut up, intemperate suggestions about packing the Supreme Court, and emotion-laden screams of "But my gawd who is our Democratic Churchill? Someone step up."

    Because personally, I'm really weary of reading and hearing these constant clarion calls by people like Armando for someone to step up, because it strongly suggests that the "someone" in question is someone else, rather than the person who's sounding the call.

    I'll be frank here. In this time of domestic political crisis, that "someone" needs to be Armando. And you. And me. Because honestly, this is OUR time to answer the call, not someone else's. WE are the ones who must step up and lead, especially in our own respective communities. Otherwise, we're really nothing more than the well-meaning but feckless moderates whom the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once disparaged in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

    The politics of shamelessness and white resentment must not be allowed to triumph. And it's going to take the efforts of us all to defeat it. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work at this immediate task so that one day, we can look our grandchildren in the eye and tell them proudly that we did our part to ensure the preservation of our democratic institutions, rather than turn our heads in shame because we were waiting for someone else to do it.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    I have no idea what you are talking about (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 04:08:58 PM EST
    The sober thinking folks win the argument for keeping our cool everytime Armando rants and he turns out to be right every single time.

    You're tired of reading clarion calls? I'm sick of your passionless over intellectualizations on the steady road to fascism.

    Parent

    Armando's part of the east coast commentariat. More often than not, he can be found sniping at his fellow snipers in their own little Twitter echo chamber. Look, he's a very smart man and I value his opinions and analysis, of which there seems to be less and less lately.

    But the bottom line here is this: Right now, I'm out there on the front lines, organizing local phone banks for Democratic congressional candidates on the U.S. mainland to turn out the vote in November, and Armando isn't. And his passive / aggressive approach to communications, e.g., telling people their opinions are stupid and they should shut up now, really doesn't help what I do. Not in the slightest.

    This is why every election season, I tend to tune out the noise and chatter to the extend I'm able without crawling into a hole, put my head down and do what I need to do at the local grassroots level to get people to the polls.

    And trust me, I'm good at what I do. I flipped four state legislative seats and one City Council seat from R to D in east Honolulu during my decade as party region chair, before moving to the Big Island. Chatting on Twitter doesn't win elections. Canvassing districts and phone banking will.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    No one is really (5.00 / 3) (#17)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 06:23:45 PM EST
    In the mood for a lecture.

    Parent
    You take up more space than anyone else here, Howdy. You best remember that.

    Aloha.

    Parent

    And now you Trump talk? (none / 0) (#19)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Jun 28, 2018 at 08:13:02 AM EST
    You best remember that?

    Is this The Little Rascals?

    Parent

    I already commented earlier today ... (none / 0) (#1)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jun 27, 2018 at 03:54:11 AM EST
    ... on the odious SCOTUS decision in Trump v. Hawaii in Sunday's post on immigrant detention and expulsion. I'm not going to repeat myself, so if you're so inclined, you can read my remarks HERE.

    Aloha.