Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg over the weekend said the anti-immigrant sentiment expressed by some in the U.S. was discouraging, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.
Ginsburg, in Honolulu to take part in a University of Hawaii Jurist-in-Residence law school program, spoke to students at Mililani High School in Central Oahu on Saturday for an hour.
One student asked whether Ginsburg thought the United States benefited from immigrants.
"I think of the U.S. as a place that welcomes people from abroad who want to work and who are yearning to be free," she said. "It's disheartening to see that there are some people who don't agree with that view who think our borders should be closed. But it's not the first time in U.S. history that has happened."
The topic of immigration has become a heated one following President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican-U.S. border and his executive order temporarily banning citizens of Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., a ban that has since been overturned by the courts.
Ginsburg also talked about the role of the Supreme Court, saying that Congress and President Trump couldn't defy the court's orders because "the people wouldn't stand for it."
She also said she would change how Congress works if she could reform the country and pass the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The Electoral College would be history, too, she said.
"I know how our Congress can work when it has truly bipartisan spirit," she said. "I hope I live to see the day when our Congress starts working in harmony again and not voting strictly along party lines."
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