Americans United Denounces President Trump’s Muslim Ban Expansion as Continued Religious Discrimination

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s announcement today that he’s expanding the Muslim Ban to more countries:

“It was un-American when President Trump proposed a Muslim Ban from the campaign trail, it was un-American when he first implemented a Muslim Ban three years ago, and it’s un-American today to expand the Muslim Ban to more countries and cruelly separate even more families. Engaging in religious discrimination to ban people because of their faith fundamentally violates our country’s constitutional principle of religious freedom. We will continue to challenge Trump’s Muslim Ban in court as we have since it was first enacted, and we urge Congress to pass the No Ban Act immediately.”

IAAB v. Trump, a case brought by Americans United, Muslim Advocates and the law firm Covington & Burling to challenge the Muslim Ban, was argued Tuesday in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The plaintiffs include Iranian Alliances Across Borders, an Iranian-American diaspora community organization; the Iranian Students’ Foundation, a student group at the University of Maryland; and several individuals whose families have been torn apart by the Muslim Ban. The case was brought in consultation with the National Iranian American Council.

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.