Trump v. Hawaii (U.S. Supreme Court, 2018)

At issue in this case is President Trump’s third attempt at prohibiting travel to the United States from six majority-Muslim nations.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed an injunction put in place by the district court, which protects foreign nationals with a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.  ADL’s brief, which was joined by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism, and T’ruah urges the Supreme Court to leave the injunction in place.  The brief points to three historical examples when the U.S. turned its back on immigrants and refugees and later apologized, including the tragedy of the USS St. Louis, in which Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were denied entry into the U.S. and sent back to Europe, where many perished in the Holocaust; the “Chinese Exclusion” Act that barred thousands of Chinese laborers from coming to America in the 1800s; and the internment of the Japanese during World War II. It traces America’s history as a nation dedicated to ideals of equality, liberty and justice, and warns against repeating the shameful times in our past when America has turned against those ideals.  The brief also argues that even worse, the Government now tries to justify its Travel Ban on immigration laws that were enacted for the purpose of reinforcing our nation’s commitment to immigrants and of correcting the historic harm discriminatory quotas caused our nation.