MEDIA RELEASE
DATE: 26 June 2016
Contact: Linda Brenner, [email protected] , 941-321-7886
                        
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Discriminatory Ban Targeting Muslim-Majority Countries
“The Supreme Court decision to uphold President Trump’s elusive travel ban should evoke disgust in America. Discrimination has been justified by the highest court.”
Rev. Elder Rachelle Brown, MCC Interim Moderator


In a strongly worded critique, the Rev. Elder Rachelle Brown, Interim Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), said the Supreme Court 5-4 decision to uphold President Donald Trump’s travel ban is “neither Christian nor American.”

“This is a ban targeted at specific groups of people and it is neither Christian nor American,” Rev. Elder Brown said. “This SCOTUS decision is based on fear which now enforces antiquated and biased ideologies.”
“We cannot be silent when this administration refuses entry to brown skinned families entering from the south, or those whose religion does not align with conservative Christians. This administration continues to marginalize and profile whole swaths of humanity,” Rev. Elder Brown said.

Although Chief Justice John Roberts said the travel ban says nothing about religion, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a scathing dissent . “The full record paints a far more harrowing picture...the Proclamation was motivated by hostility and animus toward the Muslim faith,” they wrote.

“Today’s ruling is our clarion call against complacency. We must protect those who have been made outcast by the U.S. justice system. Many in MCC are LGBTQ+ and we know what it is like to be faced with a wall of discrimination and exclusion. Some of us have had to flee for our lives and find refuge in other countries,” Rev. Elder Brown said. “The Supreme Court decision to uphold President Trump’s elusive travel ban should evoke disgust in America. Discrimination has been justified by the highest court.”