A government willing to target religion anywhere is a threat to target it everywhere. The president's new executive order is less sweeping than his first one, but it remains clearly (if more subtly) aimed at Muslims.
Does the "war on terror" justify legal restrictions on Muslim Americans and Muslim immigrants to the United States? This is a pressing question for the entire country, but especially for Utah, a state built by believers fleeing violent persecution.
The First Amendment prohibits government from discriminating on the basis of religion, and the Fourteenth Amendment forbids discrimination on the basis of race and national origin. These sound like powerful protections, but they promise more than they deliver, especially in times of national fear and uncertainty. The government is constitutionally authorized to discriminate on the basis of religion, race and national origin, if discrimination is necessary to protect a "compelling" or exceptionally important interest.
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