We've had so much SCOTUS news lately, why not revisit one of the court's most talked about decisions from the past week? On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's travel ban was constitutional. It was a close 5-4 vote, with all four liberal justices dissenting. Yet, it was Sonia Sotomayor's dissent that really outraged Chief Justice John Roberts. In her rebuttal, Sotomayor tried invoking Korematsu vs. United States to throw a wrench in the Court's decision. Korematsu considered the constitutionality of an executive order that ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II.
Sotomayor charged that, just as in Korematsu, their travel ban decision "invoked an ill-defined national security threat to justify an exclusionary policy of sweeping proportion."
That is a "wholly inapt" argument, Roberts charged. Roberts agreed that Korematsu was "gravely" wrong. But, he said it is irrelevant to the travel ban ruling.
Chief Justice Roberts does not appreciate Justice Sotomayor invoking Korematsu in the travel ban decision. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/lxcav5FaDI
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) June 26, 2018
Trump's order bans travel to the U.S. from the nations of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela.
Conservatives had plenty to cheer about the last two weeks on Capitol Hill. Not only did the Court uphold the travel ban, but it sided with pro-life pregnancy centers against the abortion lobby and with non-union members against Big Labor.
