SCOTUS Upholds Travel Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Trump’s travel ban on Tuesday restricting travel to the U.S. for foreign nationals from seven countries. The countries involved are: Venezuela, Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea. 

The court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the crucial swing vote in the case, sided with the conservative justices. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. 

Justice Roberts wrote that presidents have substantial power to regulate immigration. “The president has lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under [federal law].” Roberts went on to say, “The Proclamation is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the INA.” (Immigration and Nationality Act) 

Roberts also rejected the challengers’ claim of anti-Muslim bias.Roberts went on to say, “The [order] is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices. The text says nothing about religion.” 

Roberts was careful not to endorse either Trump's provocative statements about immigration in general and Muslims in particular. “We express no view on the soundness of the policy,” Roberts wrote. 

The case involved a challenge to the third iteration of Trump’s travel ban, which he signed in September 2017. The order placed restrictions on foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. from eight countries that Trump said were unable to determine whether its emigrants have terrorist backgrounds. Chad was removed from the list after the White House said it improved its information-sharing processes. Six of those countries have Muslim-majority populations. 

Challengers of Trump's third travel ban said the policy violated the Constitution and federal immigration law.  Challengers also argued the ban discriminates on the basis of religion, and cited Trump’s campaign statements and tweets showing anti-Muslim videos as evidence of that discrimination.

Trump Hatred

President Trump on Tuesday dubbed California Rep. Maxine Waters the “face of the Democrats” amid an escalating feud over her remarks inciting protesters to harass Trump officials in public spaces.   

After Sarah Huckabee Sander and Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen were pressured to leave restaurants last week, Maxine Waters told supporters at a Los Angeles rally to keep up the accosting of Trump supporters and employees. 

"If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Maxine Waters said. 

Trump responded Monday by saying that she was urging "harm" to his supporters. 

Many other Democrats have disagreed with Maxine Waters’ statement. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, “No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That's not right. That's not American.” 

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi did not mention Waters by name but called for “unity” as Republicans and Democrats prepare for a showdown in November's midterm elections. 

Cory Booker from New Jersey said, “If I saw an administrator out and about there is nothing wrong with confronting that person, but not to lead with love and to do it in a way that is more reflective of the values that we are trying to reject in our country is unacceptable to me.”

U.S.-Mexico Border Deaths on the Rise

The number of migrants dying from extreme heat on the U.S.-Mexico border rose 55% in the past nine months after an increase in unaccompanied children and families trying to enter the United States illegally, the U.S. government said on Monday. 

Heat-related deaths rose to 48, up from 31 over the same period in 2017, said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora. The death toll is expected to rise in the triple-digit heat of summer months as vulnerable, acclimatized immigrants attempt to cross harsh environments.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Stop Separating Families at the Border, But Keeps the 'Zero Tolerance' Policy

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order ending his administration's practice of separating migrant families but maintaining the "zero-tolerance" policy that criminally prosecutes migrants who cross the border illegally. It’s still unclear what will happen to the families that have already been separated. 

The order also directs Attorney General Jeff Sessions to seek to modify a 1997 agreement known as the Flores settlement, which bars authorities from detaining immigrant children for longer than 20 days. 

Wednesday's order included the caveat that immigration authorities will not detain families together if "there is a concern that detention of an alien child with the child's alien parent would pose a risk to the child's welfare."

Huckabee Defends ‘Racist’ Tweet

On Saturday, June 23, Former Governor Mike Huckabee sent a controversial tweet about Nancy Pelosi. 

Huckabee’s tweet said, “Nancy Pelosi introduces her new campaign committee for the take back of the House.” The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a group of men making hand signs associated with the MS-13 gang.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee dismissed criticism of the tweet claiming the message was “satire.” 

The Republican was echoing attacks made on Pelosi by President Donald Trump, who had accused the gang of exploiting U.S. immigration law and called Pelosi an MS-13 “lover” after she criticized his comments on undocumented immigrants in May.  

After facing heavy backlash which deemed the tweet as racist, Huckabee defended himself, saying he wasn’t “aware” that “criminal was a ‘race.”

“First of all, it was satire. I tell people all the time and I regularly post on my Twitter account. If you don’t have a sense of humor, if you cannot handle satire, please don’t follow me,” Mike Huckabee told Fox host Shannon Bream. “But a lot of people are trying to make this about race. What race was I talking about? I was talking about a criminal gang. A gang is not a race. People who murder, rape, who mutilate little children, that’s not a race of people. That is a gang of criminals. There’s nothing to defend.” 

“I’m amazed that there were people out there defending MS-13 and somehow saying that we weren't nice enough to them. I don’t want to be nice to MS-13. I want them to be out of business. I appreciate the president for wanting to treat them as they are, as criminals and people who are predators to little children and need to be taken off of our streets.”

Mail Time!

• Hi Bill! Thank you for “Virtue Fascism.” It goes a long way towards explaining what's going on! Awesome analysis as usual.

• Bill, I don't understand the difference between refusing service to Sarah Sanders and asking her to leave and refusing service to a gay couple by not making them a wedding cake. You seem very okay with refusing to make a wedding cake because it is in line with religious beliefs, but very against refusal of service to Sarah Sanders which is in line with political beliefs. Please explain? 

• Can't we do anything to stop Maxine Waters? Someone is going to be seriously hurt. Isn't there some kind of law against what she is doing?

Word of the Day: Mendacious