2017 Victories: ACLJ Defends Common-Sense Executive Actions to Keep America Safe

Note: This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the numerous victories by the ACLJ in 2017.

From Day One, the ACLJ has consistently and successfully maintained that the president has both the constitutional and statutory authority to issue his executive actions to keep America safe from jihadist terror.

The president’s executive actions did two common-sense things: first, they temporarily denied entry to foreign nationals from a number terrorist hotbed nations and paused entry of all refuges; second, they ordered relevant departments to assess, develop and implement enhanced vetting procedures, including in-person interviews for admission into the U.S.—policies we have advocated for years.

According to leftist state governments and radical organizations like the ACLU, these simple policies somehow constitute a “Muslim ban” and violate the Establishment Clause. In addition to mischaracterizing the executive actions, they pretend that the Constitution is a suicide pact, giving a right of free entry to all who wish to enter and do harm.

The ACLJ defended these common-sense actions at every turn. We filed numerous amicus briefs before federal district courts, federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Eventually, despite the decisions of few activist judges, the Supreme Court has consistently rebuffed the lower courts and upheld the executive actions, dismissing two of the cases.

Recently, the president issued a new Executive Proclamation, implementing new vetting procedures and new travel restrictions on eight countries, including Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Somalia, Yemen, Chad, Syria and Libya, based on hard evidence of their susceptibility to terrorist infiltrators. Yet, the left persisted in its baseless and delusional claims.

Once more, we filed numerous amicus briefs and once again the Supreme Court overruled the lower courts, allowing the proclamation to go into full effect as these cases continue on appeal. We will continue to aggressively defend the president’s authority to protect our nation, the Constitution and the rule of law.

The ACLJ remains committed to the safety and security of our nation and the rule of law. With your support, we will continue to defend the proclamation as we did the national security Executive Order.

For the original article, visit aclj.org.