So what happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe Mexican, which is great. I think that is fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs. I think they are going to love it. I think they are going to love me. . . .
.. No, this is called “authoritarianism.” It’s what Berlusconi sounded like, what Chávez sounded like and what Perón sounded like — for that matter, it’s what Sulla and Caesar and the others who helped destroy the world’s first great republic sounded like: I am bigger than the law, I AM THE LAW.
.. from a man being seriously considered to head one of the three branches of our government, it is a not-too-thinly-veiled attack on the notion of judicial independence and the rule of law. If the guy in charge of executing the laws thinks the system is “rigged” — against billionaires, I suppose he means — and a “total disgrace,” then . . . well, you can figure it out. Enforce the law against himself? Or against his pals? That’s for suckers.
.. if you are elected president and come back for your civil trial in November — it will be a disgraceful spectacle. Great for ratings, though — and that’s all that matters, right?
.. Our republic has survived some terrible presidents, with terrible ideas about how to run the country; but this is something different. We’ve never had a president who not only thinks the government will be a toy for him to play with and push people around — wow!! how wild is that!! — but who tells us, in advance, over and over again, that that is his game. If we vote him into office, I suppose we will deserve what comes.
.. Our form of government will not work if the executive branch does not respect the legitimacy of decisions made by the judicial branch, because our judicial branch is entirely without power to enforce its judgments without the assistance of the executive branch.
.. While I don’t want to be accused of over-dramatization, it is not inappropriate to point out, on this day after Memorial Day, that many people actually gave their lives to defend this idea, and we dishonor them if we throw it away.
.. And it’s not like he is standing on some important point of constitutional principle; he’s speaking out of naked self-interest, complaining about a case in which he stands to lose many millions of dollars if the judgment goes against him.
.. It is far, far too easy to imagine President Trump on prime time TV tearing up any judgment against him with a big smile on his face: “Hey, Judge Curiel, you think I have to fork $22 million to defrauded customers? Try and make me …” After all, the system is rigged – and the judge, to make matters worse, is a Mexican**. President Trump is going to be pushing them around, remember? Not vice versa!
.. That a TV celebrity wants to be above the law and immune to its commands is no surprise; I suspect that lots of TV celebrities would like to act outside the law.But the president actually has the levers of the law in his/her hands. And there is a name for a chief executive who believes he/she is above the law: tyrant.
What Donald Trump Thinks Judges are good for
Earlier in this season’s campaign, for example, he was asked about judges he might want to nominate to the Supreme Court. “Well, I’d probably appoint people that would look very seriously at her e-mail disaster, because it’s a criminal activity, and I would appoint people that would look very seriously at that to start off with,” Trump said in a phone interview with ABC News, referring to Hillary Clinton. “What she’s getting away with is absolutely murder. You talk about a case—now that’s a real case.”
.. As in most other areas, Trump is transactional about the judiciary. He appears to have no interest in legal philosophy per se; rather, he divides judges, as he divides most others, into the categories of friend and foe. What matters is not how judges think, but where they come out—on Trump’s side, or not.
.. In a speech last week in San Diego, where Curiel sits, Trump unleashed an attackagainst the judge that was unlike any by a Presidential candidate against a sitting judge in living memory. Earlier, Curiel had set the case, which was brought by former students at Trump’s school, for trial in late November, after Election Day. Trump, in response, said, “There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily.” He added, “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel.” Trump went on, “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine.” The case, Trump concluded, was “rigged” against him. “This court system, the judges in this court system, federal court. They ought to look into Judge Curiel, because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace,” Trump said.
.. But Trump’s complaints are more revealing even than the decisions that irk him. Trump has no apparent philosophy of how judges make decisions; he doesn’t even attempt something as simple, and revealing, as George W. Bush’s antipathy for judges who “legislate from the bench.” For Trump, rather, judging is all personal, at least as far as he is concerned.
.. As illustrated by his attacks on Judge Curiel, Trump’s style is bigoted name-calling, not reasoned critique. That’s his pattern—and not just about judges.
Online speech backers’ newest fear: Trump
Free-speech advocates in Congress are teaming up with an unlikely ally: Silicon Valley.
Tech companies and GOP lawmakers have found common cause in trying to make it harder to sue people for what they say online, inspired by cases such as a Virginia carpet cleaner’s attempt to punish the writers of negative Yelp reviews. But while the anti-lawsuit crusade meshes with Republicans’ traditional dislike of trial lawyers, supporters fear it will collide with Trump’s fondness for litigation against his critics — including his real or threatened suits against a Miss USA contestant, a rapper who used his name in a YouTube video, a journalist who questioned his net worth and former GOP primary rival John Kasich.
So the bill’s supporters are pushing to get the legislation passed while Barack Obama is still president.
“Obama will sign this. I don’t think Trump will,” said Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold, a lead sponsor of the anti-lawsuit bill — who also happens to support Trump’s White House bid.
.. Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, has said passing an anti-SLAPP bill would be a fitting rebuke for the Republican hopeful.
“Time and again, Trump demonstrates a flawed understanding of the U.S. Constitution and of American values,” Shapiro, who backed Sen. Marco Rubio’s candidacy, wrote this spring in The American Spectator. “Supporting strong anti-SLAPP legislation would send Trump a message: No reasonable, thinking American wants a bully in the White House.”
.. In some cases, he has openly acknowledged that going to court is less about seeking justice and more about joyfully punishing enemies. In one infamous example, he sued a New York Times business editor over a book in which the writer reported on doubts that Trump was the billionaire he claimed to be.
“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” said Trump, who lost the case. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”
Trump Takes Aim at the Independent Judiciary
It’s unlikely that Trump would strip Americans of the right to elect their leaders. It’s more likely that he’d undermine those institutions that restrain the power of the leaders Americans elect. He’d undermine the institutions that limit presidential power and safeguard individual rights and equality under the law.
.. Trump’s close ally, Roger Stone, has said that, “when Donald Trump is president, he should turn off” CNN’s “FCC license.” Trump has repeatedly calledthe journalists who cover him “scum” and barred news organizations that cover him critically from attending his public events.
.. It’s easy to imagine what will happen to Curiel now. Like the journalists Trump has publicly slammed, he’ll receive an avalanche of personal, bigoted abuse from Trump’s supporters, including, quite possibly, death threats. This may, in and of itself, give future judges second thoughts about incurring The Donald’s wrath.
.. But the more Americans think the courts are rigged, the stronger Trump’s position. The more he convinces his supporters that judges, like reporters, are corrupt and self-interested, the less public legitimacy they enjoy. And the less public legitimacy they enjoy, the less they can check Trump’s power.
.. Where he’s been more consistent is in his willingness to denigrate anyone who gets in his way. He’s less likely to the challenge federal judiciary’s progressivism than to challenge its independence. Gonzalo Curiel may be the first judge he’s threatened on his way to the White House. But he’s unlikely to be the last.