“Not Just Locker Room Talk”

November 17, 2016, New York – In response to statements made last night by a surrogate for Donald Trump effectively endorsing Japanese internment, Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy made the following statement:

Last night, a Donald Trump surrogate cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as precedent for a Muslim registry. Until the rise of Trumpism, it had been universally recognized that Japanese internment was one of the most shameful episodes in our country’s history, yet in this new era it is becoming an inspiration for policymaking. Beyond an embrace of racism and xenophobia, this level of racial and religious scapegoating undermines our most basic constitutional values.

Trump's extremist agenda has never been "just locker room talk" – we must start to take him and those who will be empowered in his administration at their word: we must believe they are working to do what they said they would do. The Center for Constitutional Rights stands with American Muslims and every other community under attack, and with our partners and communities on the front lines, we will do everything in our power to fight the slide into American fascism.