Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” when asked about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims form coming into the United States, U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. said, “I cannot imagine the court will find a religious test like that to be appropriate. ”
Partial transcript as follows:
MELBER: I asked him what you just referenced, would that kind of religious ban be legal, and here is what he told me. When you mention immigration and people look, you got a nominee proposing a religious ban on immigration. Legally, constitutionally, would that power exist?
VERRILLI: I would be surprised to think that it would.
MELBER: You think the Supreme Court would strike it down.
VERRILLI: You don’t want to speculate on a case that won’t exist and probably never exist. I cannot imagine the court will find a religious test like that to be appropriate.
MELBER: And a religious test—you use that word because that itself is banned in the constitution?
VERRILLI: In different context, yes.
MELBER: That’s his view of why this probably would not be upheld even if Donald Trump won and got it into law.
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