Donald Trump Has Now Trashed the 1st Amendment, the 5th Amendment, and the 14th Amendment

Another day, another rank attack on basic constitutional principles from Trump.

Another day, another rank attack on basic constitutional principles from Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Trump's latest comes in response to last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. "Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything," Trump told Fox News, but the U.S. will have "absolutely no choice" but to shut down some mosques. Trump also said he was open to the idea of forcing Muslim-Americans to carry a special government identification card and forcing Muslim-Americans to register in a national government database. Can FDR-style internment camps for Muslim-Americans be far behind?

So much for the First Amendment and its pesky language guaranteeing the free exercise of religion.

Regrettably, this is not Donald Trump's first assault on the Constitution. In addition to his calls for suppressing religious freedom, Trump has repeatedly trashed the 14th Amendment as part of his campaign to suppress immigration. On top of that, Trump has repeatedly trashed the Fifth Amendment, endorsing a boundless definition of eminent domain power that would effectively delete the words "for public use" from the Constitution, thereby granting government officials (and their crony capitalist allies like Trump) a virtual blank check to seize whatever private property they happen to want.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Trump's vision of untrammeled government power is an affront to the very idea of constitutionally limited government."

Comments

[Bill Dalasio]

Donald Trump is an authoritarian retard (or at least pandering to authoritarian retards)?

Who'd have guessed?

[The Late P Brooks]

Arm bands and tattoos. Go with what works.

[ATXChappy]

Really, no need to re-invent the wheel here.

[sarcasmic]

He will make the empire great again.

[SugarFree]

At least his stormtroopers will all be white on the inside as well as the outside.

[Not okay]

A republic of inherent rights can only survive if the people actually support it.

[sarcasmic]

Those "inherent rights" must be necessarily trampled if we are to survive the onslaught of the immigrant and Muslim hordes. After all, the Constitution isn't a suicide pact.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

What good are rights if they can't keep me safe?

Say what you will about fascism, dude, at least it can suppress the troublemakers.

[Aresen]

Actually, it puts the troublemakers in power.

Or haven't you been reading the police misconduct posts?

[Doctor Whom]

You can't exercise your rights if you're dead. If only one life is saved, it will all have been worth it.

[Sevo]

Particularly if it's Donald's life, right?

[BigT]

"If only one life is saved, it will all have been worth it...."

Say the gun-grabbers
Say the GMO food banners
Say the vape suppressors
Say the seatbelt enforcers
Say the football haters

You going with that?

[Aresen]

Check your sarcasmometer.

[ATXChappy]

The man truly frightens me. The few speeches of his I have watched are nothing but him rambling about "These are the people we want" or "These are the people we don't want" in this country. And, he's not talking exclusively about immigration either. Half the time He's talking about natural born citizens that he doesn't want in this country. Of course he never says what he's going to do with the natural born citizens that he doesn't want. But, the fact that he now wants to start tracking them can't be a good sign. The free showers can't be that far off.

[Ken Shultz]

If Donald Trump were a troll here in the comment section of Hit & Run, we'd mostly ignore him. But because he's running for President, we should care about what he says? It might be different if his negatives weren't so high--but as of the last poll I saw, Donald Trump's negative ratings--among registered Republicans--are so high, that twice as many registered Republicans are saying they won't vote for him as say they support him.

Meanwhile, my fellow libertarians--although well-intended--are unwittingly carrying water for the Trump campaign.

Trump's entire strategy is all about winning the nomination--without spending significant amounts of his own money. Trump learned how to run for President by listening to his friend Howard Stern on the radio. If Trump says outrageous things that the media will cover--as part of their stories rather than advertising--then he doesn't have to pay for it. You can't buy advertising like that! If Trump offered Root $500 to write this post, Root would turn him down because of his integrity--and yet Root and others are writing exactly what Trump wants them to write for free!

[Ken Shultz]

I'd love to see some stories analyzing Trump's election strategy. Write about his negative ratings among registered Republicans--twice as big as his support. Write about his reluctance to spend his own money. If journalists would stop doing what amounts to moral panic pieces every time Trump does his Howard Stern impression (only about public policy), he'd have to dig into his own pockets--and he's only prepared to do so much of that. He has no support among establishment donors. And how do you imagine Donald Trump asking his grass roots supporters for a money bomb would go over?

Wanna kill the Trump campaign? Deprive him of oxygen by writing about his strategy instead of the purposely outrageous shit he says.

His strategy is all about saying outrageous things to generate free stories and headlines.

Baba Booey!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Donald Trump Has Now Trashed the 1st Amendment, the 5th Amendment, and the 14th Amendment

So he'll be popular on college campuses and a darling of the progressive left. Moving on...

[Doctor Whom]

You can out-progressive-left the progressive left, but if you're on the wrong team, they'll still hate you. Example: George W. Bush.

[sarcasmic]

Principals, not principles. Seriously, if Trump was campaigning as a Dem, he'd be giving Hill a run for her money.

[Ken Shultz]

I don't think this is a left thing, exactly.

More than a quarter of the Republicans out there want someone to do something to keep out the Mexicans, bomb the fuck out of ISIS, get the Muslims out, etc.--and listening to people tell them about the Constitution or other reasons why that's a bad idea to them is like being scolded by a nanny.

Trump appeals to that.

Yeah, those guys (and they're mostly guys) have counterparts on the progressive left, as well. We don't tend to think of them as being the mirror image of the populist right because the populist right likes to project themselves as anti-intellectual and the populist left likes to project themselves as being intellectual.

But in a double-blind test--stripped of code words and mannerism--I doubt any of them could tell each other apart.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Trump is what I would call truly right-wing. A populist guy who uses the government to extend the national interest and puff up national-greatness. Welfare programs abound, for True Americans.

[lap83]

He has a lot in common with moderate Dems though

[In League with the Dark Ones]

And Sanders.

[brady949]

Can you guys please get a different picture of Trump? I'm tired of seeing his fish mouth open.

[Old.Mexican]

"Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything," Trump told Fox News, but the U.S. will have "absolutely no choice" but to shut down some mosques.

Well, that statement is not correct. You can choose NOT to close them. So there IS a choice. The question becomes: do you want to or not?

[Napoleon Bonaparte]

I doubt he actually intends to do a lot the things he claims (indeed, he must know that he can't do them).

But having the threat hanging in the air could be quite effective all on it's own.

[The Late P Brooks]

Half of survey respondents in DC want the ban on privately owned handguns reinstated.

Many, if not most, Americans couldn't give a fuck less about the Constitution, and they vote. They vote for people like Trump, and Hillary, and Bloomberg. They vote for perceived security at the expense of freedom (especially the freedom of others). Go ahead, round up all the Mohammedans and gas them, who gives a shit? It';s not like they'll start gassing Mormons and Buddhists next, right? Unless they deserve it.

[steedamike]

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out?
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out?
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out?
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me?and there was no one left to speak for me.

[Notorious UGCC]

OK, let's assume we don't currently have a religious database of Americans (we could ask Clapper).

But we're close to having a *racial* database.

People filling out census forms, voter registrants, applicants for employment and government benefits, are asked to "voluntarily" disclose their race.

Put all that data together and you could probably be able to get a racial ID on just about every American.

[Notorious UGCC]

Hey, it seems that Hamas, at least as of early 2014, wants Muslims to identify themselves to the government.

Hamas blew a gasket when the Palestinian Authority said religion would be taken off people's ID cards.*

"Mohammed al-Ghoul, former justice minister in the Hamas government, has gone as far as to describe the decision as "a crime against the Palestinian people."...

"...a news website close to Hamas cited a variety of reasons for the movement's rejection of the decision, describing it as "shameful" and made within a fake national framework, because abolishing religion was the demand of secularists and leftists."

*"According to [the Interior minister], since religion is mentioned on a citizen's birth certificate...there is no need to repeat it on the ID."

[Notorious UGCC]

Oh, for crying out loud, at least make some Batman jokes after I quote someone named al-Ghoul.

[simplybe]

The Constitution has already been so bastardized that I doubt Trumps stupidity will hurt much. I personally would much rather have a military dictatorship than either Clinton or Trump. Clinton is the epitome of everything wrong with this country and Trump as far as the Constitution is concerned is dumber than a stump.

[lap83]

Trump also said he was open to the idea of forcing Muslim-Americans to carry a special government identification card and forcing Muslim-Americans to register in a national government database.

Rights aside, this doesn't seem like it would be effective at identifying terrorists.

[lap83]

and not because I'm pulling a Hillary and think Islam has nothing to do with ISIS, but why would terrorists voluntarily put themselves under more scrutiny?

[OneOut]

"Trump also said he was open to the idea of forcing Muslim-Americans to carry a special government identification card and forcing Muslim-Americans to register in a national government database."

Unclutch your pearls and unshit your pants. Trump did not say that. Go and listen to the audio of the statement. There were several subjects discussed and the last one was about building a wall. The reporter ( loosely used, anti Trump activist is more accurate) then asked "would you support that ? " Trump said yes referring to the llast topic which was a wall. Some how , innocently enough I'm sure, the reporter wrote that Trump said he supported a registry. Trump never used the words registry, those were the reporters words. Trump never said he supported a registry he never even spoke the word registry.

I'm not a Trump supporter but fair is fair. Don't fall for this reporter lying and manipulating you whether you support Trump or not. Who knows if his next lie will be about the person you do support.

[BigT]

Yeah, I saw that as well. Trump was misquoted.

But this is what he'll have to put up with. Fortunately he is more adept than Ms Palin at the game with the press.

I don't care for Trump. But could never vote for the Hildebeast. It'll be a sad season.

[CatoTheYounger]

"Trump also said he was open to the idea of forcing Muslim-Americans to carry a special government identification card and forcing Muslim-Americans to register in a national government database."

We should also have Muslim-Americans wear green crescent moons, so we can quickly identify them in public. *nod*

[jdgalt]

He hasn't quite said they should be exterminated yet. But Mr. Trump certainly looks poised to justify an exception to Godwin's Law. Let's goad him just a little more -- I want to watch the blood fly!

[JoWaDat889]

Dude that is some kinda scary look in dude.

http://www.CompleteAnon.tk

[antodav]

You will, oddly, sometimes hear Trump supporters talk about the Constitution as if they don't hold it in complete and utter contempt.

[Michael Ejercito]

Trump should have started small.

He should have said that he would argue that the preaching of practice of Islam creates a hostile educational environment in violation of Title VII and Title IX, and as such public universities receiving federal money must expel students who practice Islam. This would not violate the First Amendment because public universities have a code of conduct, and it does not actually stop people from practicing Islam; the university only expels them. Plus, they would not be put in prison for practicing Islam- the First Amendment only prohibits criminal punishment, not expulsions by the university for violating the code of conduct