The Court That Will Believe Absolutely Anything Is ‘Race-Neutral’
The majority gives Trump yet more license to discriminate.
TL;DR
- The Trump administration repeatedly made racially charged statements about nonwhite immigrants, particularly those from Africa and the Caribbean.
- The Supreme Court, in *Mullin v. Doe*, sided with the Trump administration, suggesting that policy decisions do not matter if a race-neutral justification can be found, regardless of the president's rhetoric.
- The ruling places 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians at risk of deportation.
- Critics argue that Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion sets an impossible burden for plaintiffs seeking to prove racial discrimination, as governments can offer pretextual justifications.
- The Court's decision is compared to the era that led to Jim Crow laws, where superficially race-neutral policies masked discriminatory intent.
- Justice Alito's reasoning is inconsistent, as he has previously identified pretextual racial discrimination when white individuals were perceived as victims, but dismisses it when nonwhite individuals are targeted.