WASHINGTON – Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) went on CNN Tuesday to chide the U.S. Supreme Court for upholding President Donald Trump’s “racist, ugly” travel ban, suggesting that Justice Neil Gorsuch was bribed to vote in favor of the policy.
“Gorsuch has done what his paymasters sent him there to do,” Ellison told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “At This Hour.”
“It just proves one thing: if you steal and rip off a Supreme Court justice, then you can try to jam any kind of nasty racist ugly policy you can down the throats of the American people. But we’re not taking it,” Ellison added, referencing Senate Republicans blocking the confirmation of Merrick Garland following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the third version of Trump’s travel ban which places a range of travel restrictions on seven countries: North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia. Despite the uproar from Democrats, the court ruled the travel restrictions were indeed within the president’s constitutional bounds.
“The president lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings – following a worldwide, multi-agency review – that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
The court shot down any arguments that the travel ban discriminated against Muslims, with Roberts writing that the text of the executive order “is expressly premised on legitimate purposes: preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted.”
Ellison, who recently announced his candidacy for attorney general of Minnesota, berated the decision, saying “it simply isn’t” within the president’s perview. Ellison told CNN that the Supreme Court is “tailor made” to Trump’s “ugly philosophy,” calling the court a “partisan court.”
“The Supreme Court has said that no matter how bad the discriminatory language is before, during, and after President Trump’s run and his service, as long as he puts a very thin veneer of national security on top of all that discrimination and racism, they will buy it,” Ellison told CNN. “In other words, as long as a pig has some lipstick on it, it’s fine.”
“Our country has gone through some ugly days. The Supreme Court in the 1850s said that it was OK to own a black person, that was the Dred Scott decision. That decision hit the dust bin of history. And this one will too,” Ellison told CNN.
Watch the full interview below:
