'What else could he nullify?' Newsmax legal analyst slams Trump order as unconstitutional
A conservative legal analyst expressed alarm over Donald Trump's executive order purporting to end a constitutional right.
The newly inaugurated president issued an order shortly after he was sworn in to a second term rolling back the constitutionally protected right to birthright citizenship, which has long been understood to be required under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, and Newsmax legal analyst Andrew Napolitano was surprised by some of Trump's actions.
"This is an extraordinary amount of activity in just 24 hours," said Napolitano, a retired judge and former Fox News analyst. "The number of executive orders that were signed, which basically direct others to do things, the pardons direct the [Department of Justice], let these people out of jail immediately, even directs the courts wipe out their convictions. You know, if you've been convicted and you serve time and you are assessed a penalty and you paid the penalty and you got a pardon, what happens to that penalty? You get the money back, so all of these things now will begin to take place as a result of the executive order. It's not just a piece of paper, it's directing people in the government to do things."
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The American Civil Liberties Union has already challenged the order halting the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the U.S., which anti-immigration advocates argue should not be conferred to children whose parents did not enter the country legally.
"That is a very that is a very troublesome thing that he wants to do," Napolitano said. "In my view, it's directly articulated in the Constitution. That would be like Joe Biden or Barack Obama saying, 'I'm not going to obey the Second Amendment, I'm going to start confiscating guns, even though the right to keep and bear arms is directly articulated. He's going to find opposition on the right, the left, progressives, libertarians, conservatives, liberals. He's going to find opposition from across the board on that."
"If he can nullify that portion of the Constitution," Napolitano added, "what else could he nullify? That will be the argument."
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