[RESEND-FIXED LINK] SCOTUS Declares Trump Not "Overtly" Racist
Plus, the latest from the Convocation Unscripted Team
APOLOGIES—We’re resending this week’s newsletter because we had a technical issue with the video link in the previous email. Thanks for your patience!
LAST CALL! Barnes & Noble is running a flash sale for PREORDERS of new books. You can preorder Kristin’s LIVE LAUGH LOVE and Robby’s BACKSLIDE at bn.com through end of the day today (6/26) and get 25% off with code PREORDER25. Both ship in early September.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s order to remove Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The lead opinion, written by Justice Alito, declared that Trump’s derogatory language about these groups (“they’re eating the pets”) and their country of origin (“sh*thole countries”) was not “OVERTLY” racist and therefore not a factor in discerning his motivation for the order. Justice Sotomayor, in a blistering dissent, declared that “the references—of filth, disease, and primitiveness—are shot through with racial stereotypes.” Meanwhile, Trump is giving white South African refugees welcome bags with a PragerU children’s book on so-called reverse racism, and a document that defends the country’s founding on slavery. We talk about how these moves violate not only basic moral decency but Christian teaching about treating immigrants with hospitality and respect and, well, just not bearing false witness against your neighbor. We close by reminding listeners of the need to pay attention to the bright lines being crossed and to not cede the flag or patriotism to the Christian nationalists who distort their meaning.
The Latest from Team TCU
How You Can Support Our Work
Many of you have asked how you can support our work, especially in these challenging days. One of the best ways you can support our work is by buying our books—especially pre-ordering new books (Kristin and Robby both have books coming out in September).
You can order books from The Convocation Unscripted podcast team at a curated bookshelf on Bookshop.com. (Note: If you purchase from the links below, a portion of your purchase goes to support this newsletter).
Here’s the latest book from each of us:
Kristin, LIVE LAUGH LOVE: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made (AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER)
Robby, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy (AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER)
Diana, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance (WINNER OF THE 2026 WILBUR AWARD)
Jemar, The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Thanks for this episode. Just wanted to offer a tiny correction that the rightly blistering dissent was authored by Justice Elena Kagan (writing for the dissenters, including Justice Sotomayor), not Justice Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor also wrote a blistering dissent that she summarized orally, but that was to another majority opinion authored by Justice Alito, regarding the also ridiculous conclusion that people who present themselves at a US port of entry cannot apply for asylum because they have not yet "arrived" in the US. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5940732-supreme-court-immigration-policy/ That was the dissent (that Diana noted) that Alito did not respond well to.