Democrat lawmaker calls conservative justices ‘horsemen of the apocalypse’ (video)
Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono on Monday said she’s waiting for a fourth judge to join Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to round out the trio she’s dubbed “the three horsemen of the apocalypse.” The lawmaker’s absurd statement came in response to the court’s decision to allow portions of the Trump administration’s anti-terror travel ban to stand.
Hirono said the court’s move to lift part of an earlier injunction on the travel ban was “hardly a victory,” before demonstrating that she has very little understanding of the policy or what the court actually did on Monday.
“It’s still a Muslim ban and by lifting part of the injunction, by creating a category of people who are trying to come in, to try and create a bona fide relationship, I don’t know what that means,” she said.
It means, of course, people trying to enter the U.S. from countries where terror training is known to occur have to demonstrate that they have a reason– a job, family, close friends, education– to enter the country.
Hirono’s statements are pulled directly from Democrat talking points designed to make the travel policy appear as a religious test of some sort for admittance to the U.S.
That was the issue at the heart of an injunction against the Trump ban from the 4th Circuit Court earlier this year.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court partially reinstated the Trump ban on Monday, determining that the president isn’t violating American constitutional rights by telling people from terror hotbeds they can’t come to the U.S. without good reason.
The court weakened Trump’s ban by ruling that foreign nationals “who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States” can’t be barred from entry. The decision dictates that “a foreign national who wishes to enter the United States to live with or visit a family member…clearly has such a relationship…. So too would a worker who has accepted an offer of employment from an American company or a lecturer invited to address an American audience.”
Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch all noted that they would have had no problem lifting the injunction against the ban with no such stipulations. And it’s likely that the position will carry when the justices take a closer look at the case this fall.
“The Government has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits – that is, that the judgments below will be reversed,” wrote Justice Thomas, supported by Alito and Gorsuch. “The Government has also established that failure to stay the injunctions will cause irreparable harm by interfering with its ‘compelling need to provide for the Nation’s security.’”
The three argue that the compromised version of the travel ban given the green light by the court provides massive loopholes that will ultimately undermine national security.
And for their concern, Democrats like Hirono contend that the conservative justices are evil.
“Neil Gorsuch, who I did not support as a Supreme Court justice, he’s joined two of the most conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Alito on the court to take the position that the entire injunction should have been lifted,” she said on MSNBC.
“This is like the three horsemen of the apocalypse, and they’re waiting for the fourth one to come along so that they can go on their trend toward what I call our extremism,” she added.
