Supreme Court’s Historic Immigration Decision in Trump v. Hawaii
26 Jun 2018
Washington, DC

WASHINGON, DC – The Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Trump and his “extreme vetting” immigration policy across the board in a 5-4 decision on Tuesday, holding that the permanent entry restrictions from seven terror-prone nations codified in Presidential Proclamation 9645 is fully consistent with Congress’s Immigration and Nationality Act as well as the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“The Proclamation is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority,” the Court declared in its opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, foreign nationals seeking entry into the United States undergo a vetting process to ensure that they satisfy the numerous requirements for admission,” Roberts began. “The Act also vests the President with authority to restrict the entry of aliens whenever he finds that their entry would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” quoting 8 U. S. C. §1182(f).

“Relying on that delegation, the President concluded that it was necessary to impose entry restrictions on nationals of countries that do not share adequate information for an informed entry determination, or that otherwise present national security risks,” he continued, quoting the language of Presidential Proclamation 9645.

“To further that purpose, the Proclamation placed entry restrictions on the nationals of eight foreign states whose systems for managing and sharing information about their nationals the President deemed inadequate,” Roberts added.

“The Proclamation exempts lawful permanent residents and foreign nationals who have been granted asylum,” the Court continued. “It also provides for case-by-case waivers when a foreign national demonstrates undue hardship, and that his entry is in the national interest and would not pose a threat to public safety.”

The plaintiffs in the case argued that Proclamation 9645 is not authorized by the Immigration and National Act (INA). “The INA establishes numerous grounds on which an alien abroad may be inadmissible to the United States and ineligible for a visa,” the opinion explains.

“Congress has also delegated to the President authority to suspend or restrict the entry of aliens in certain circumstances,” the majority added. “The principal source of that authority, §1182(f), enables the President to ‘suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens’ whenever he ‘finds’ that their entry ‘would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.’”

“By its plain language, §1182(f) grants the President broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States,” the Supreme Court held. “The President lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings—following a worldwide, multi-agency review—that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest.”

“By its terms, §1182(f) exudes deference to the President in every clause. It entrusts to the President the decisions whether and when to suspend entry,” Roberts wrote. “The Proclamation falls well within this comprehensive delegation.”

The plaintiffs also argued that Presidential Proclamation 9645 violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which provides, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“Our cases recognize that the clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another,” Roberts began that part of the opinion.

“Plaintiffs believe that the Proclamation violates this prohibition by singling out Muslims for disfavored treatment,” the Court explained. “The entry suspension, they contend, operates as a ‘religious gerrymander,’ in part because most of the countries covered by the Proclamation have Muslim-majority populations.”

The challengers “argue that this President’s words strike at fundamental standards of respect and tolerance, in violation of our constitutional tradition. But the issue before us is not whether to denounce the statements,” Roberts reasoned. “It is instead the significance of those statements in reviewing a Presidential directive, neutral on its face, addressing a matter within the core of executive responsibility.”

“For more than a century, this Court has recognized that the admission and exclusion of foreign nationals is a fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government’s political departments largely immune from judicial control,” the Court declared.

“Nonetheless, although foreign nationals seeking admission have no constitutional right to entry, this Court has engaged in a circumscribed judicial inquiry when the denial of a visa allegedly burdens the constitutional rights of a U. S. citizen,” the justices noted.

“Given the authority of the political branches over admission, we held that when the Executive exercises this delegated power negatively on the basis of a facially legitimate and bona fide reason,” the majority explained, “the courts will neither look behind the exercise of that discretion, nor test it by balancing its justification against the asserted constitutional interests of U.S. citizens.”

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http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...trump-v-hawaii/