The Unitarian Universalist Association Denounces Supreme Court Travel Ban Decision

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to uphold the Trump administration’s travel ban is a dangerous assault on religious freedomspecifically the religious freedom of Muslim people of color.

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) was party to an amicus brief questioning the constitutionality of the travel ban, and we are profoundly disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it best in her dissent. “The United States of America is a Nation built upon the promise of religious liberty. Our Founders honored that core promise by embedding the principle of religious neutrality in the First Amendment. The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle.”

Sotomayor accurately notes that the decision “tells members of minority religions in our country that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.”

The decision continues the U.S. government’s criminalizing of identity under the guise of making the country safer. Criminalizing entire countries negates our global interconnectedness, a key part of our Unitarian Universalist values.

To the Muslim Unitarian Universalists in our congregations and to Muslim folks we may never meetwe will continue to support you, love you, and work for your right to live and worship freely.