Many are infuriated by the Supreme Court's ruling on Tuesday morning to uphold Donald Trump's blatantly discriminatory and xenophobic travel ban, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor's sensibility and morale give us the slightest bit of hope.
In her dissent, Sotomayor condemned the majority’s decision as a failure to uphold the religious freedom of American citizens.
“The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle,” she wrote. “It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States' because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.”
Sotomayor also mentioned numerous bigoted comments Trump made before and after the 2016 election.
“Even before being sworn into office, then-candidate Trump stated that 'Islam hates us,' warned that '[w]e’re having problems with the Muslims and we’re having problems with Muslims coming into the country,' promised to enact a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,' and instructed one of his advisers to find a 'lega[l]' way to enact a Muslim ban,” she continued. “The President continued to make similar statements well after his inauguration, as detailed above.”
As we all know, Trump has never recanted any of his statements about Muslims, and Sotomayor points that out.
“Moreover, despite several opportunities to do so, President Trump has never disavowed any of his prior statements about Islam,” Sotomayor said. “Instead, he has continued to make remarks that a reasonable observer would view as an unrelenting attack on the Muslim religion and its followers.”
In her conclusion, Sotomayor declared the Supreme Court did not fulfill its duty to uphold the Constitution.
“Our Constitution demands, and our country deserves, a Judiciary willing to hold the coordinate branches to account when they defy our most sacred legal commitments. Because the Court’s decision today has failed in that respect, with profound regret, I dissent,” she wrote.
Go all the way in, your honor.