The Travel Ban, the Law, and What’s ‘Right’
The Supreme Court’s ruling contributes to the legitimization and mainstreaming of anti-Muslim bigotry. But the court isn’t tasked to make moral judgments about the law.
In January 2017, when President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim ban was first announced, I was passionately against it. It was one of the most frightening texts I’ve read from U.S. government officials in my lifetime. The Supreme Court just upheld the third iteration of the travel ban in Trump v. Hawaii, and I find myself in the odd position of opposing the court’s ruling on personal and moral grounds, while also thinking it was a legally plausible interpretation.
Like most political developments ofthe morally right—but that doesn’t necessarily make it correct. The Supreme Court, unlike Congress, is not tasked to make moral judgments about the law, at least not explicitly.
