A federal judge appointed by President Trump issued a sharply-worded opinion ruling that ICE had violated the constitutional rights of detainees in Minnesota.
There are very few laws that punish unconstitutional behavior by officials, and even those that exist (like the constitutional limit on the President receiving gifts and honors) have been largely ignored on pretenses (like the golden jet being gifted to a legal entity in Trump’s name instead of to him directly).
That is probably something I would change. It should be a crime for any government official to try to stifle free speech, to deny due process rights, or any other right granted by the Constitution. The punishment should involve the threat of being automatically removed from office and barred from similar offices in the future.
But this is on the background of a judicial system that invented “qualified immunity” to essentially limit the scope of applicable law so that even very egregious violations are protected.
There are very few laws that punish unconstitutional behavior by officials, and even those that exist (like the constitutional limit on the President receiving gifts and honors) have been largely ignored on pretenses (like the golden jet being gifted to a legal entity in Trump’s name instead of to him directly).
That is probably something I would change. It should be a crime for any government official to try to stifle free speech, to deny due process rights, or any other right granted by the Constitution. The punishment should involve the threat of being automatically removed from office and barred from similar offices in the future.
But this is on the background of a judicial system that invented “qualified immunity” to essentially limit the scope of applicable law so that even very egregious violations are protected.