What if a president were known to be anti-Semite?

[question everything]

An interesting approach by Justice Elena Kagan, cross posting from GD

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210545751

Justice Kagan Has a Plan to End Trumps Travel Ban

"So let's say in some future time a president gets elected who is a vehement anti-Semite and says all kinds of denigrating comments about Jews and provokes a lot of resentment and hatred over the course of a campaign and in his presidency and, in the course of that, asks his staff or his cabinet members to issue … recommendations so that he can issue a proclamation of this kind, and they dot all the i's and they cross all the t's. And what emerges — and, again, in the context of this virulent anti-Semitism — what emerges is a proclamation that says no one shall enter from Israel."

[still_one]

1. I would argue we have a President who is a racist, sexist, and bigot, with strong links to

anti-Jewish influences in his administration

To your point though, the U.S. did bar Jews from entering during WWII, and they were sent back to Germany, and certain death, and that was when there was NOT an administration with anti-Jewish feellings.

[question everything]

2. Indeed. This was one of the two points that struck me when we visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C

the St. Louis ship.

The second was the Evian Conference when Hitler told the various states to take the German Jews and only the Dominican Republic agreed.

After which, Hitler could gloat: you see, no one wants them.

Still the point that Kagan made that these will not be refugees, just visitors from Israel and that the only reason for barring them would be because of the president's known bigotry to which the solicitor general had to agree.

[MosheFeingold]

5. Yeah, I was going to say

Roosevelt pretty much had a "no Jews allowed" policy that resulted in tremendous loss of life.

My family kind of skipped under the wire, just because they left on the early side of things (and advantage to being dirt poor, I suppose; we had nothing keeping us there).

It was strange, in that he had many Jewish officials and friends.

One of the great black marks on America and an otherwise fine Democratic President.

When he did act, it was too little, too late.

[FBaggins]

3. It was just the right question for the issue

Unfortunately, the government had the right answer.

This has always seemed like a pretty clear cut case to me (from a con law perspective, not a policy perspective). I expect the final vote to mirror the lifting of the stay last year... 7-2

[DBoon]

4. We already had Richard Nixon

His white house audio recordings reveal a wealth of crude antisemitism

Fortunately for Israeli citizens, cold war considerations required him to at least publicly support Israel.

[MosheFeingold]

6. Nixon was a strange bird

He unquestionably saved Israel, for example. IN Operation Nickel Grass, there were probably ~600 missions flown, delivery tons of ammunition and supplies and probably 5 times that delivered by sea. Planes, bombs, guns, food, medicine -- everything. He completely over-rode Kissinger and the State Department.

His actions prevented a second Shoa.

And speaking of Kissinger (who was Jewish), Kissinger was his closest advisor and friend.

And, yet, (even to Kissenger's face) he was foul-mouthed and doubtful about Jewish people in the USA, constantly questioning their loyalty.

Strange how such foul and flawed people are used for good.

I'd add this quote:

In his memoirs, Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president, said this of Nixon’s ugly outbursts:

“He supplied arms and unflinching support when our very existence would have been in danger without them. Let his comments be set against his actions. His words may have raised eyebrows but not his actions.

“And I’ll choose actions over words any day of the week.”

Nixon was a putz. But he was a putz who had our back.