A coalition that includes the Equal Justice Society released a new report today outlining the argument for President Trump’s impeachment on the basis of his racist abuses of power. EJS yesterday reiterated its support for the U.S. House impeachment inquiry and shared that Trump’s racist abuses of power should be among the Articles of Impeachment.
Authored by Free Speech For People’s Legal Director, constitutional lawyer Ron Fein, and issued by Free Speech For People, By The People, CREDO Action, and the Equal Justice Society, the report shows a pattern of the president’s racist rhetoric and policy actions, and sets forth, for the first time, a constitutional framework for determining when racist presidential action and rhetoric crosses the line into “high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” EJS Legal Director Mona Tawatao reviewed the report.
Read the full announcement and download the report here.
Following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement yesterday that the US House of Representatives will conduct a formal impeachment inquiry, the 24-page report provides an in-depth analysis of several of the constitutional grounds for impeachment of the president based on his racist conduct.
By the standards set forth in the Constitution’s Take Care Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, the president is obligated to guarantee “equal protection of the laws,” and to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The report argues Trump has defied this constitutional responsibility and violated his oath of office, and explains why Congress should include racist abuse of office as part of the impeachment case, alongside other impeachable offenses.
Some of the actions cited in the report include: an immigration ban targeting people of Islamic faith; the cruel and unconstitutional imprisonment of Latinx immigrants on the U.S./Mexico border, including child separation; misusing the military by deploying it to the border after inventing a supposed national security threat of a “migrant caravan” that disappeared after the 2018 election; and promising to use the pardon power to protect federal officials carrying out his illegal border policies.
Free Speech For People has emerged over the past ten years as a recognized leader in the movement to challenge big money in politics and reclaim democracy from the domination of large corporate interests. Following the 2016 election, it launched a nationwide campaign to confront the unparalleled corruption of the Trump presidency and to hold those at the highest levels of government accountable to the law.
Read the full announcement and download the report here.
Free Speech For People thanks Professor Catherine Ross of George Washington University Law School and Member of FSFP’s Legal Advisory Committee, Professor Jennifer Taub of Vermont Law School and Member of Free Speech For People’s Board of Directors, and Mona Tawatao, Legal Director of the Equal Justice Society, for reviewing and providing comments on earlier drafts.