Washington, DC – Leading Members of Congress, represented by Constitutional Accountability Center, filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, asking the court to grant the relief requested by those challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the travel into the United States of persons from seven Muslim-majority countries. The brief states, in part:

[Trump’s order] flies in the face of one of our most deeply rooted constitutional values: that the government must not favor (or disfavor) any particular religion. As the Constitution’s text and history make clear, the Religion Clauses prohibit a religious test that singles out a religion for discriminatory treatment under our immigration laws. The Order’s religious discrimination also runs afoul of the Fifth Amendment’s requirement of due process, which includes the guarantee of the equal protection of the laws. The original meaning of the Constitution confirms that those core principles of equality protect both citizen and noncitizen alike.

CAC President Elizabeth Wydra said, “We are proud to represent Members of Congress – led by Senator Chris Coons and Representative Zoe Lofgren – in this legal battle against President Trump’s Muslim travel ban, an executive action that violates America’s most fundamental constitutional values. Make no mistake, real people have been hurt by Trump’s unlawful order. Meanwhile, his continued attacks on the judiciary should not weaken the resolve of courts around the country to apply our Constitution and laws without fear or favor. America’s founders designed the courts to be a check on the elected branches of government when they violate basic rights, and to balance against the President or Congress when they overreach in their use of power. Trump’s Muslim travel ban is exactly the sort of misuse of power these checks and balances were meant to correct.”

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Resources:

Brief by CAC on behalf of more than 150 Members of Congress in Darweesh v. Trump: http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/Darweesh_v_Trump_ED_NY_Amicus_Final.pdf

The full list of Members of Congress who signed the brief is located in the Appendix at page 1A.

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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