Meeks Issues Statement on SCOTUS Muslim Travel Ban Decision

Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Representative Gregory W. Meeks, senior member of the Foreign Relations committee, issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Trump's Muslim travel ban:

"I am deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling to uphold President Trump's Muslim travel ban. As his words have made clear from the very beginning, Trump's executive order was born from an intent to single out Muslims, and midwifed through post-hoc security justifications. Rather than protecting our nation from threats abroad, the Muslim ban plays directly into the hands of extremists who welcome the narrative of a religious war.

"The theft of President Obama's Supreme Court nomination by the Republican Senate has already proven to have far reaching and long lasting consequences. With Justice Gorsuch further slanting the bench toward a conservative ideology, SCOTUS has failed to serve as a check on Trump, it has failed to protect women, it has failed to block minority voter suppression, it has failed to protect the rights of the LGBTQ community, and it has failed again today.

"In empowering the White House to discriminate based on nationality and religion, our nation's highest court has abetted in one of our nation's lowest points in history. The absence of rigorous judicial oversight has left only Congress to serve as a check on this administrations prejudicial animus."