'Sexist and racist': Analyst slams 'awful' Supreme Court ruling that rips apart families
Lost in the shuffle of Supreme Court decisions at the end of this term is one that rolls back rights for undocumented spouses of American citizens, wrote Ahilan Arulanantham for Slate on Wednesday — and it is particularly cruel in how it weaponizes history to do so.
The case, Department of State v. Muñoz, concerns an undocumented Salvadoran man married to a lawyer in Southern California, who, upon traveling back to his home country as part of the process to apply for citizenship, was arbitrarily denied by a consular official who incorrectly thought his tattoos were gang symbols — leaving their family split and forcing the wife to either move to El Salvador or let her children grow up without their father.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the family was entitled to a reasonable explanation for the denial — but it was appealed and, on the advice of the State Department, the Supreme Court reversed the decision, rolling back due process rights for all families with an undocumented spouse....