By Lee Mendez/ tr news editor
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 9 against reinstating President Donald Trump’s travel ban. But that’s not the end of the story.
While many celebrated, the fact remains either the executive order will be rewritten or the case will land before the Supreme Court.
Consider if the Supreme Court were to uphold the travel ban. Would the president expand the ban’s scope? What else would he seek to expand under the guise of national security?
This nation is based on a tradition of inclusion and preserving inalienable rights protected by the world’s oldest active constitution. Talk of bans and exclusions from an administration that leads the U.S.’ most diverse population ever is disheartening.
“Disheartening” and “demoralizing” are just two words used recently by Neil Gorsuch, the president’s Supreme Court nominee, to describe Trump’s Twitter attack on the judiciary. Imagine how disheartened and demoralized refugees feel.
The time of Trump has given us a president who blames “illegals” for costing him the popular vote. He wants Mexico to pay for a wall that will cost American taxpayers billions to build. He says we’ll get the money back from Mexico … eventually.
Meanwhile, Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon now sits on the National Security Council. Bannon was previously the executive chair of Breitbart News, an organization with far-right views and largely supported by the “alt-right” movement.
Richard Spencer, the man who coined the phrase “alt-right,” told NPR that he believes only “European people were the indispensable central people that defined this nation socially and politically and culturally and demographically, obviously.”
Two words sum up Spencer’s quote — white supremacy.
This nation is defined socially, politically, culturally and demographically by a rich tapestry of cultures and people that span the entire globe. While at one time European people were a large part of the population, there is no denying that non-European people are now represented from coast to coast.
Bannon’s past ties to Breitbart and his failure to repudiate the “alt-right” movement or its racially motivated pretext for supporting nationalistic propaganda is deeply troubling. The fact that such a repugnant philosophy can now have a direct effect on national security policy is an affront to the principles on which so many sacrifices have been made.
And the fruits of this have come to bear with the travel ban. Thankfully, the founders left us with an independent judiciary that could repel such ill-conceived policy.
Still, only four weeks into his term, the president seems undeterred in his commitment to preserving liberty by denying it to others.
