Public Comment

Kudos to the Seattle judge who halted President Trump’s executive order targeting people from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US. Hundreds of refugees, students, researchers, business men and women had to endure extreme humiliation being forced off planes stuck in limbo waiting for sanity to return to the US. Trump was attempting to follow through on his campaign promise to launch a “total and complete shutdown” on all Muslim entrants to America. 

Predictably, Trump who does not take defeat gracefully, lashed out at the judicial branch for considering challenges to his executive order accusing them of being politically motivated judges and “disgraceful”. Acting more like a king than a president, Trump chose to exclude senior officials in his travel ban fatwa adding to the confusion.  

The state of Washington was right to argue that the court must provide a check on executive power. Trump’s order clearly discriminates between minority and majority religions giving favorable treatment to Christians. This is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution and thus Trump’s travel ban must be invalidated by the US Justice Department. Even Supreme Court Justice Nominee, Gorsuch, jumped into the fray calling Trump’s tweets, about the judiciary “demoralizing and disheartening” If the stay by the district court is overturned, the case will likely be fast-tracked to the US Supreme Court. Let us hope common sense will prevail and the US remains a haven for the “huddled masses”.