TYLER: ‘Court neglects its duty to uphold our First Amendment principles of religious liberty’
For Immediate Release: June 26, 2018
Media contact: Cherilyn Crowe / [email protected] / Office: 202-544-4226 / Cell: 202-670-5877
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the policy known as the “travel ban” in its decision in Trump v. Hawaii.
The following statement is from Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty:
“We are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s refusal to repudiate policy rooted in animus against Muslims.
In giving such broad deference to President Trump, the Court neglects its duty to uphold our First Amendment principles of religious liberty. Safeguarding religious liberty requires the government to remain neutral with regard to religion, neither favoring one religion over another nor preferring religion or irreligion.
More than ever, preserving American religious freedom requires the active involvement of all citizens to denounce religious bigotry in all its forms.”
The Baptist Joint Committee’s general counsel, Holly Hollman, and more than 30 other constitutional scholars signed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the ban is unconstitutionally based in religious animus toward Muslims. To read excerpts, visit the BJC blog.
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Based in Washington, D.C., the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is an 82-year-old religiously based organization working to defend religious freedom for all people and protect the institutional separation of church and state in the historic Baptist tradition.
