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Musicmystery -> RE: Legal scholars to Trump: Abide by Constitution (12/13/2016 7:32:03 PM)
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The scholars, including many from the nation's top law schools, released a list of seven issues that "illustrate, but does not exhaust, our concerns."
They accused Trump of:
• Curtailing press freedom. As a candidate, Trump excluded some reporters from campaign events, threatened to sue journalists and mused about changing the nation's libel laws. "We urge you to allow the press to do its job, and we call upon you to commit to honoring First Amendment principles more broadly," they said.
• Threatening Muslims. Trump's early call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, later followed by talk of closing mosques or initiating a Muslim registry, amount to "poisonous anti-Muslim rhetoric which threatens our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religious exercise and the Fifth Amendment’s promise of equal protection of the laws," the letter said.
• Infringing on judicial independence. Citing Trump's call for the judge presiding over a trial involving Trump University to recuse himself because of his Mexican heritage, they warned about "what this episode may signal about your administration’s respect for the independence of the judicial branch."
• Applying a litmus test for abortion. Trump has said he will name Supreme Court justices who disagree with the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, and that as a result states will control reproductive freedom. "We urge you to renounce your commitment to appointing justices with the aim of denying women their long-established, fundamental constitutional rights," they said.
• Threatening civil rights. The nomination of Sessions,who has a "troubling history" on race issues, "threatens to erase years of progress in ensuring equal citizenship in the United States," the letter said. They urged Trump to ditch Sessions for a "less polarizing person," but the Senate is very likely to confirm him.
• Lying about voter fraud. Trump claims he would have won the popular vote over Hillary Clinton but for the votes of millions of illegal immigrants. But no such voting has been proven, and the group urged the president-elect to "communicate with the American people honestly and responsibly about threats to the integrity of our election system."
• Inflaming hate groups. The scholars claimed Trump's "inflammatory rhetoric" during the campaign inspired neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, whom he awarded with Bannon's appointment. "We ... urge you to strongly and unequivocally condemn — and use the power of your future office to combat — racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism," they said.
Among those signing the letter were Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California-Irvine; Michael Dorf of Cornell Law School; Peter Edelman of Georgetown Law Center; Jamal Greene of Columbia Law School; Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School; Alan Morrison of George Washington University Law School; Neil Siegel of Duke Law School; Stephen Vladeck of the University of Texas School of Law; and Adam Winkler of UCLA School of Law.
“The kind of conduct we’re concerned about is not normal. It’s abnormal,” Siegel said. As a result, the need to write such a letter "is not ordinary. It's extraordinary."
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