04/26/2018

Supreme Court Appears to Back Travel Ban

Its conservative majority signaled this week they are inclined to allow the ban's third iteration to stand

The conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States signaled this week during oral arguments that they are inclined to allow the third iteration of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to stand.

The Supreme Court has already allowed the current ban, issued last fall, to go into effect while agreeing to address the question of whether Trump exceeded his authority to ban immigrants from certain countries from entering the U.S. Trump’s travel order bans travelers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea and Venezuela. Chad was initially part of the ban too but was removed from the list earlier this month. Restrictions on North Korea and Venezuela are not part of the court challenge.

The travel ban’s challengers, led by the state of Hawaii, have said Trump’s comments and campaign promises before he was elected president are a clear indication that the travel ban was aimed at banning Muslims from entering the country. Former Obama administration acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, representing Hawaii, said that Trump has taken an “iron wrecking ball” to America’s immigration laws and that his travel ban violates the U.S. Constitution.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, representing the administration, said the travel ban applies to a handful of countries and is not directed at Muslims.

“This is not a so-called Muslim ban,” Francisco said. “If it were, it would be the most ineffective Muslim ban that one could possibly imagine.”

Justice Samuel Alito seemed to agree, pointing out that there are 50 predominantly Muslim countries in the world and only five of them are affected by the travel ban.

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), which is part of the Visit U.S. Coalition, has not weighed in on the constitutionality of the travel ban but is advocating for policies that will reverse the decline in international visitors to the U.S.

“It’s been our position through the various iterations of the president’s travel ban that we leave the constitutionality question to the courts,” said ASAE President and CEO John Graham, FASAE, CAE. “While mindful of our national security interests, we continue to have concerns that we are not doing enough to create a welcoming environment for international travelers to come to the U.S. for business or tourism. The research conducted by the Visit U.S. Coalition, of which ASAE is a member, unfortunately bears this out.”

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.