This week, possibly as early as tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its opinion in the federal travel ban case Trump v. Hawaii.

It is surprising that this case went all the way to the Supreme Court.  The travel ban applies to residents of seven countries (Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen).  Six countries have majority Muslim population.  Many of the President’s critics refer to his executive order as a Muslim ban.

The travel ban omits the majority of the Muslim world, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.  This is not a Muslim ban.

The countries covered by the ban are instead ones that fail to provide the minimum baseline of information needed to vet their nationals.  Given that the U.S. continues to face the threat of terrorism from the Muslim world, this policy would seem rational; but in my view, it does not go far enough toward providing security to residents of the United States.

A portion of the oral arguments focused on the First Amendment: does the travel ban violate the Free Exercise Clause?  The answer is no, since the U.S. Constitution does not apply to foreign nationals on foreign soil.  This would be true even if the executive order were an outright Muslim ban.  There would be no constitutional problem with excluding Muslims on account of being Muslim.  It may, however, violate federal law.

Unfortunately, because of our country’s history of discrimination based on race, nationality, and religion, American today are very sensitive and will make great efforts to distance themselves from that history, even if doing so makes the country less safe.

This sensitivity also leads to an incentive to identify bigotry where none exists, then publicly and loudly oppose it.

The critics of the President are desperate to demonstrate that he is, among other evils, some sort of bigot.  And they are willing to endanger the American people to prove it.

Should the Supreme Court do the unthinkable, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, in his role as Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces, must defy the Court’s ruling, striking down the executive order.  The Court has no business second guessing how the President defends the nation.  This could create a constitutional crisis and may lead to impeachment, but the President simply cannot let stand such a dangerous ruling from the Court.