Another in an ongoing series.
Dear Senator;
I am a resident of Pennsylvania and a constituent of yours and I'd like you to answer a question or two.
The New York Times reported yesterday that:
President Trump said in an interview that aired on Sunday that he did not know whether every person on American soil was entitled to due process, despite constitutional guarantees, and complained that adhering to that principle would result in an unmanageable slowdown of his mass deportation program.
The revealing exchange, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was prompted by the interviewer Kristen Welker asking Mr. Trump if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that citizens and noncitizens in the United States were entitled to due process.
“I don’t know,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”
I'm also not a lawyer but I do know that the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution reads (in part):
No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
And the Fourteenth Amendment reads (also in part):
...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Senator, you'll note that the text clearly uses the word "person" and not "citizen."
Under the Constitution, everyone is entitled to due process, Senator. One does not need to be a lawyer to know that.
Does his response concern you, Senator? That The President of the United States either does not know that everyone is entitled to due process or (worse yet) does not believe that everyone is entitled to due process?
How about you, Senator? Is everyone entitled to due process?
How will you and the rest of the GOP led Senate be dealing with this?
I'll await your answer, Senator.
Note: As always, I'll be posting to this blog whatever the Senator sends back as a response.
