As I predicted a long time ago, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court decisions and upheld the travel ban in Trump v. Hawaii. In doing so, the Court chose to essentially prioritize the president’s powers in matters of national security over rights created by the Establishment Clause.
The case revolved around Trump’s public statements about a Muslim ban. Justices Roberts and Kennedy made oblique, and ultimately ineffectual, efforts to show that they were still on the side of the angels; the majority opinion overrules Korematsu, while Kennedy made some strained and almost pathetic comments about how incredibly important it is for public officials to follow the Constitution even when there is no judicial check on them. The message is “We may have concerns about Trump, but we’re not part of the resistance–you’re on your own with that.”
I was watching a PBS program about America in World War I last night. Part of the program, naturally, was about the Sedition Act and the other measures that were used to crack down on dissent during the war. Naturally, the question arises: what happens if Trump manufactures a foreign policy crisis and then demands limits on our civil liberties in the name of national security? Can we rely on the Court to protect us, or will the justices simply wring their hands and do nothing, like Ryan and McConnell?
After yesterday, the answer is fairly clear. And don’t think for a minute that it can’t happen here, because it has before.