Tag: Legitimacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Trump v. Hawaii concerns stricter enforcement of America’s immigration law in the form of the Trump administration’s so-called “travel ban.” If you want to understand the court’s reasoning on this issue, focus on the deeper legal questions involved, rather than obsessing over the superficial politics and personalities. The Supreme Court has asked the parties to address four critical questions. The question here is how broad the president’s powers are in the area of immigration, and more specifically whether the courts may review the political branches’ decisions to exclude aliens abroad. The justices often defer to the executive branch in its decision-making, which would suggest an approval of the ban may be in the offing. Next, the court asked the parties to consider whether the travel ban — which suspends entry, subject to exceptions and case-by-case waivers, of certain categories of aliens abroad from eight countries that “do not share adequate information with the United States or that present other risk factors” — is a lawful exercise of the president’s authority to suspend entry of aliens abroad. Here, the adoption of the government-friendly verbiage — that the president simply excluded nationals from nations that “do not share adequate information” or “present other risk factors” — suggests the court may intend to hold the president lawfully exercised his authority. Or for excluding those who pose “other risk factors” to America? Further, the government says, it cannot run afoul of the Constitution where it’s acting in the interest of national security, which the ban is designed to provide. Or does the interest of national security — and a more legitimate national interest may not exist — trump the Bill of Rights? Although there has been some turnover on the court since those cases were decided, if the court follows the implication of those cases here, then you may expect the court to say national security does not allow the executive branch to discriminate against a particular religion either intentionally or in effect.