(Photo: Masha George/Flickr/cc)
NCAC joins PEN America and 31 other prominent arts organizations to jointly file a friend of the court brief in the case of State of Hawaii v. Trump, urging the Supreme Court to strike down the third version of the Trump travel ban issued on September 27, 2017. Executive Order (EO) 13780 bans all immigration from six majority Muslim countries, placing additional visa restrictions on nationals of Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen, and Chad, and includes token restrictions on North Korea and Venezuela.
This brief follows NCAC’s JOINT STATEMENT REGARDING THE IMPACT OF THE U.S. IMMIGRATION BAN ON ARTISTIC FREEDOM signed by 40 organizations early last year, expressing grave concern that the Executive Order would have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and seriously inhibit creative freedom and the free flow of ideas. The brief also follows an earlier amicus filed last fall that challenged a previous version of the travel ban.
Arts organizations including the Sundance Institute, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Americans for the Arts argue that the travel ban violates Americans’ First Amendment right “to receive information by preventing our citizens from hearing and interacting with the ideas and viewpoints of nationals of the targeted countries.” The brief highlights the many contributions of immigrants, refugees and visitors to American culture, stating “It is no coincidence—but rather an animating principle—that refugees have created many of the works that define what it means to be an American.”
In addition to lead amicus PEN America, the brief was joined by the following:
(For more information about these organizations, please see the brief’s Appendix)
Americans for the Arts
BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
CASH Music
Chamber Music America
Children’s Museum of Manhattan
CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art)
College Art Association
Content Creators Coalition
Dance/USA
Fractured Atlas
Future of Music Coalition
globalFEST
Guitar Mash
Institute of Contemporary Art
IETM
Index on Censorship
International Association of Art Critics (AICA) International Committee on Censorship
Livesounds
National Alliance of Musical Theater
National Coalition Against Censorship
Network of Ensemble Theaters
New England Foundation for the Arts
OPERA America
Performing Arts Alliance
Sundance Institute
Tamizdat
Teachers and Writers Collaborative
Theatre Communications Group
Trudel MacPherson
Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Western Arts Alliance
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
Read the brief below; click here for a full screen view: