Discrimination against Refugees: The Limits of Presidential Authority under International Law

By Richard Bainter*

I. INTRODUCTION

Several federal courts have already considered President Trump’s two executive orders restricting entry into the United States by foreign nationals from seven, predominately Muslim, countries as well as the settlement of all refugees in the U.S. Much of the discussion about the legality of those orders has centered on U.S. constitutional law, specifically how the executive orders offend the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process. Little attention has been paid to how the discrimination against refugees, which is explicit in the first executive order and made inevitable by the terms of the second, violates international law.¹

II. THE TRUMP TRAVEL BANS