Washington, DC | www.adc.org | April 25, 2018 | On this day – April 25th – the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the nation’s largest Arab-American civil rights organization, encourages the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold equality, tolerance, and pluralism in our nation. Today, for the first time, the Court will hear oral arguments from the Trump Administration and defenders of civil and immigrant rights in a case that will determine the constitutionality of the Administration’s Arab and Muslim Ban.
ADC has been on the frontline fighting against the Arab and Muslim Ban since Trump signed his first Executive Order on January 28, 2017. With every new reiteration of the Ban, ADC was there to fight and offer aid and comfort to our community.
As it had done in the lower courts, ADC – in partnership with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP – has submitted an amicus curiae brief arguing that the Arab and Muslim Ban should be struck down as unconstitutional. Among other things, ADC took the unique perspective of documenting through case studies the detrimental impact of the Ban on several individuals and families. (Click here to read ADC’s amicus curiae brief.)
ADC appeals to the justices of the Court to uphold the spirit of equality and egalitarianism that has so distinguished our judiciary in the past, to once again rebuke the racism that has too often soiled our politics, and to bear witness to the principle emblazoned on the Court’s façade: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.
The Arab and Muslim Ban singles out for discriminatory exclusion whole peoples based solely on their common ethnicity, religion, and national origin. In the past, bigotry and fearmongering have been used to justify excluding Catholics, Chinese, Jews, and many others tarred by the brush of racism. Today, Arabs and Muslims, many of whom are fleeing civil wars and domestic calamities, are victims of the latest manifestation of anti-immigrant demagoguery. Tomorrow it will be another people. That is why it is of the utmost importance that the Court must not establish the precedent of an ethnic and religious ban.
The Arab and Muslim Ban is no less odious than other past discriminatory policies struck down by the Court. The Court must once again act in that tradition and sound the death knell for one of the Administration’s most infamous policies. ADC awaits the Court’s fair verdict.