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I caught just about sixty seconds, last night, of Bill O’Reilly’s show. To my dismay, that was enough time for me to hear Mr. O’Reilly suggest that, although (as Mr. O’Reilly himself says) Gonzalo Curiel has done nothing wrong beyond being the son of Mexican immigrants who came legal to the United States where they obtained U.S. citizenship, Judge Curiel should recuse himself from presiding over the trial of a fraud case against the now-defunct Trump University. (For background on the matter, see the section of this Wikipedia article entitled “Trump University lawsuits.”)
Judge Curiel absolutely should not recuse himself from the case.
It’s a matter of principle that he not do so.
Gonzalo Curiel was born and raised in Indiana, where he earned both his undergraduate and law degrees. He is an American. And, apart from Mr. Donald Trump’s highly self-interested insinuations and those of his paid minions, there have been no real allegations of wrong-doing by him in this matter.
Being the child of immigrants doesn’t disqualify one from serving on the bench.
Mr. Trump has now further suggested not only that Mexicans shouldn’t be permitted to sit as judges in cases involving Him, but that Muslims are disqualified, on purely religious grounds, from doing so. No matter, apparently, whether they were born and raised in America or not. No matter how qualified they may be. Not even if they’re competent and fair. (Perhaps, one suspects, especially if they’re competent and fair.)
“Krauthammer’s Take: Trump Revealing ‘Who He Is’ with Mexican Judge Comments”
“Donald Trump’s Assault on American Immigrants”
My paternal grandfather was Danish. He died before I was born. My paternal grandmother was Norwegian. She died when I was five years old, but I still remember her thick Norwegian accent.
Was my father therefore not really an American? Should he have been barred from serving as a non-commissioned officer in General Patton’s Third Army? Should his brother, my uncle, have been disallowed from fighting in the South Pacific? My grandfather himself volunteered for the United States Army during the Spanish American War. The conflict ended before he was deployed, but he was proud for the rest of his life of having worn the uniform of what he (perhaps wrongly?) considered his country.
I have a Havana-born daughter-in-law. She grew up mostly in Miami and is a citizen of the United States of America. In a President Trump’s America, though, would she everlastingly be a second-class citizen?
For me, opposition to Mr. Donald Trump is, at bottom, a moral issue. I cannot support him. I cannot.
“Trump’s Attack on Judge Curiel Undermines a Key Case for His Presidency”
“Is the Contemptible Trump in Contempt of Court?”
For another response to Mr. Trump, see this piece by the prominent libertarian writer David Boaz:
Republican leaders endorsing Mr. Trump are threatening to take over the role and the reputation once reserved for lemmings.
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