The Constitution Demands It by Ron Fein

Author:Ron Fein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2018-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

On Friday evening, August 25, 2017, Trump issued his first presidential pardon, to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. (This pardon was discussed briefly in Chapter 3.)

For over twenty years, Arpaio had run the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office with shocking cruelty and lawlessness, particularly against Latinos.1 In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the Sheriff’s Office engaged in systemic unconstitutional policing.2 Later in 2011, a federal judge in Arizona issued a preliminary injunction barring the Sheriff’s Office from enforcing federal immigration law or from detaining persons they believed to be in the country without authorization but against whom they had no state charges.3 In 2012, the judge issued findings of fact and conclusions of law determining that the Sheriff’s Office had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos by targeting them during raids and traffic stops, and issued a permanent injunction.4 However, Arpaio refused to obey the injunction, and in May 2016, the judge found him in civil contempt of court for deliberately disobeying the order.5

The judge also referred the matter to a different federal judge in Arizona for an investigation of criminal contempt. On July 31, 2017, after a five-day trial, this second judge determined that Arpaio had “willfully violated the order by failing to do anything to ensure his subordinates’ compliance and by directing them to continue to detain persons for whom no criminal charges could be filed,” and found him guilty of criminal contempt of court. Sentencing was set for October 2017.6

Trump made clear that he was displeased with this course of events. In the spring, Trump reportedly had asked Sessions whether the Department of Justice might abandon the criminal contempt case; when rebuffed, Trump decided to let the case go to trial with the plan of pardoning Arpaio if he was convicted.7

Two weeks after the verdict, Trump told Fox News that he was considering a pardon for Arpaio, and that Arpaio “doesn’t deserve to be treated this way” because he “has protected people from crimes and saved lives.”8 On August 22, just days after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump rhetorically asked a Phoenix campaign audience, “Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?”9

On August 25, 2017, Trump pardoned Arpaio. In a two-paragraph statement, the White House stated: “Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is [a] worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.” 10 Trump also added in a tweet, “He kept Arizona safe!”11

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