Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor
Credit: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

On Tuesday, five Supreme Court justices — Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch — upheld Trump’s blanket ban on travel into the United States from several majority-Muslim nations. The policy was Trump’s best effort to make good on his campaign pledge promising “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

The majority decision waves away those comments — and scores of others cited by the dissenters — in which Trump makes clear that the purpose of the travel ban was to target Muslims. “[W]e must consider not only the statements of a particular President, but also the authority of the Presidency itself,” Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, argues.

Plaintiffs 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. It is instead the significance of those statements in reviewing a Presidential directive, neutral on its face, addressing […]