Attorney General Becerra: High Court Will Determine If Oval Office Can Trump The Constitution

Monday, June 26, 2017
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

Supreme Court to review discredited Trump Muslim travel ban

SACRAMENTO - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to review the legality of the Trump Administration's Muslim travel ban and to keep in place a substantial part of two lower court preliminary injunctions blocking the travel ban.

“Our Constitution will finally have its day in court. The discredited Muslim travel ban goes to the heart of the First Amendment and our remarkable journey to distance ourselves from our historic entanglement with discrimination. We'll know soon if we are indeed a nation of laws, not men,” said Attorney General Becerra. “My fellow attorneys general and I will keep a close watch on how the Administration handles this latest court development. We are prepared to do what it takes to protect the People's constitutional rights and ensure compliance with the Court's order as we await its final decision.”

The Court's order kept in place the appellate courts' injunctions, which had stayed the travel ban except with respect to people who lack "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States." People with family members in the United States, students who have been admitted to our colleges and universities, workers who have accepted jobs here, among others, remain protected from the discredited travel ban.

BACKGROUND

Last month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, upheld an injunction on President Trump's travel ban, saying the executive order, "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination." Attorney General Becerra was part of a coalition of states filing an amicus brief urging the Fourth Circuit to uphold the district court ruling that struck down the travel ban as unconstitutional.

This month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld an injunction against the Muslim travel ban. In April, Attorney General Becerra had joined a coalition of states filing an amicus brief in that Court, supporting the preliminary injunction obtained by the state of Hawai'i, which bars enforcement of unconstitutional provisions of the Trump Administration's revised travel ban.

California is also suing the federal government over the travel ban as a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit in federal court in the State of Washington, along with a group of other states. That suit is ongoing.

Most recently, Attorney General Becerra joined a coalition of 17 states in filing an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court urging the Court to reject the Trump Administration's continued push to revive the discredited travel ban. 

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