Trump vs. the First Amendment

During a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, Trump began his usual tirade against newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, saying they’re “losing money” and are “dishonest.” The Republican presidential candidate then took a different turn, suggesting that when he’s president they’ll “have problems.”

One of the things I’m going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we’re certainly leading. I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected,

(h/t Politico, National Review)

Reality

Freedom of the press in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This clause is generally understood as prohibiting the government from interfering with the printing and distribution of information or opinions.

If a President Donald Trump does attempt to go after journalists and media outlets it would be a clear violation of the constitution and highly anti-American.

Media

Trump Talks About Judges ‘Signing Bills’

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump made a bizarre assertion about judges “signing bills” during the February 25th Republican CNN debate.

Trump made the comments while defending his sister Maryanne Trump Barry, who is a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is also pro-choice.

Trump said:

“Excuse me, she’s a brilliant judge. He’s been criticizing — he’s been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill. So I think that maybe we should get a little bit of an apology from Ted. What do you think?”

(h/t Daily Caller)

Reality

Judges don’t sign bills. That’s not how our democracy works.

The many statements by Trump like this highlight his complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the United States Constitution and our laws.

Media

Trump says Cruz’s Canadian birth could be ‘very precarious’ for GOP

Trump again raised his crazy ‘birther’ flag when speaking to the Washington Post about Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency.

“Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem,” Trump said when asked about the topic. “It’d be a very precarious one for Republicans because he’d be running and the courts may take a long time to make a decision. You don’t want to be running and have that kind of thing over your head.”

Reality

The Constitution says the candidate must be 35 years of age and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The third qualification: He or she must be a “natural born citizen.”

The Congressional Research Service, the agency tasked with providing authoritative research to all members of Congress, published a report after the 2008 election supporting the thinking that “natural born” citizenship means citizenship held “at birth.”

Ted Cruz is eligible to be President of the United States of America.

Links

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-cruzs-canadian-birth-could-be-very-precarious-for-gop/2016/01/05/5ce69764-b3f8-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html?postshare=6591452034521111&tid=ss_tw-bottom

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/mar/26/ted-cruz-born-canada-eligible-run-president-update/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42097.pdf

Trump: Birthright Babies Not Citizens

Donald Trump said that he doesn’t think people born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants are American citizens.

The Republican presidential front-runner said in an interview on Fox News:

“I don’t think they have American citizenship and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers — and I know some will disagree — but many of them agree with me and you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship. We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell.”

Trump added he would “test it out” in the courts.

Trump has called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in the United States — allowing the “good ones” to return through an expedited legal process.

“What happens is they’re in Mexico, they’re going to have a baby, they move over here for a couple of days, they have the baby — (the lawyers are) saying it’s not going to hold up in court,” Trump said.

Trump announced in his immigration policy proposal that he wants to end birthright citizenship — preventing future undocumented immigrants from giving birth to an American citizen simply by virtue of being born on U.S. soil.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Most legal scholars will say birthright citizenship is a constitutional right from the 14th Amendment which says:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

Other Republican presidential candidates have joined Trump’s call for ending birthright citizenship, suggested birthright citizenship could be ended by simply passing a law through Congress that defines the clause “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

However Trump so far has taken the extra step of suggesting doing so retroactively and stripping certain Americans of their citizenship.

Media

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