Monday, August 15, 2016

In the speech where he hinted that gun nuts might want to assassinate Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump raised even scarier issues about an Alabama judge


Donald Trump during his "Second Amendment people" speech
(From cnn.com)
When GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump seemed to suggest last week that "Second Amendment People" might want to assassinate Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton over gun rights, it overshadowed perhaps a more significant issue in the same speech. It's almost certainly more significant if you have concluded that Trump was not serious in his statement about Clinton.

What's the issue that got overlooked? Well, it involves a federal judge from Alabama, a guy named Bill Pryor. Reporter Jay Michaelson picked up on it in a Daily Beast articled titled "Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Would Kill the ‘Right to Remain Silent’ Warning." From the Michaelson piece:

Just a few sentences after the “Second Amendment” remark, Trump boasted, “we have such great Justices, you saw my list of 11 that have been vetted and respected.” At the top of the list—prepared not by Trump but by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative-to-libertarian think tank funded by the Coors family, the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation, the Scaife Foundation, and the Olin Foundation, some of the same funders who have blocked the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland—is Judge William Pryor of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Michaelson then reminds Americans of extremist views Pryor has expressed in the past -- and how they could radically alter our democracy if a President Trump were to nominate Pryor for the U.S. Supreme Court. After noting Pryor's staunch -- and in my view, wildly unlawful -- opposition to abortion rights under Roe v. Wade, Michaelson writes:

Pryor is also (in-)famous for a 2000 speech he gave (to the Heritage Foundation, incidentally) in which he called Miranda v. Arizona one of the two “worst examples of judicial activism.” (The other, of course, was Roe.) If you’ve ever watched a cop series on TV, you know Miranda—that’s the case that required police to tell arrestees “you have the right to remain silent.” 
In Pryor’s world, those warnings wouldn’t exist.

The U.S. Supreme Court more or less gutted Miranda with a 2013 ruling styled Salinas v. Texas. If BIll Pryor were to wind up on the high court, via a Trump presidency, it might wipe out Miranda altogether.

Consider a few troubling implications from such an outcome:

* Miranda applies not only to those arrested and charged with a crime, but also to those who have been detained in a "custodial investigation." In other words, some of these people have not even been accused of doing anything wrong.

Bill Pryor, in a gay-porn pose
from the 1990s and badpuppy.com
* So Bill Pryor wants people who have not even been accused of a crime to be forced to talk? How does he think law enforcement should accomplish that? By turning silence into a crime and forcing people to be incarcerated? By turning torture into a common component in the U.S. "justice" system? As an appointee under the George W. Bush administration, perhaps Pryor would be expected to have a fondness for torture.

In an otherwise fine article, Michaelson makes one mistake. Here's how he refers to Pryor:

Now, Bill Pryor is, by all accounts, a distinguished and ethical jurist. Born in 1962, he has had a brilliant career, serving as Alabama’s youngest attorney general from 1997-2003 before being nominated by President George W. Bush to a federal appeals court. 

Those of us who have followed Pryor's career closely know he is neither distinguished nor ethical -- and his career has been anything but brilliant.

We have shown that, as a college student, Pryor posed nude for photographs that wound up at the badpuppy.com gay-porn Web site, and he almost certainly failed to mention that in his confirmation hearings, which would constitute lying to Congress. Because of his gay-porn background, Pryor is subject to being controlled, even blackmailed, according to multiple news reports. Pryor perhaps is best known for launching (while Alabama AG) an investigation of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, leading to perhaps the most notorious political prosecution in American history.

Pryor's investigation, which turned into a federal probe, started after Siegelman had been in office for roughly three months. (Question: How could Pryor have probable cause to open such an investigation when Siegelman had been in office barely 12 weeks? Answer: He couldn't, which points to the investigation being driven by politics, not facts or law.)

As for Donald Trump, he vanquished the Republican primary field largely because of his ability to entertain and shock audiences. His comment about Hillary Clinton was perhaps his most shocking statement yet. But that should not lull Americans into thinking that Trump is a mere sideshow. He's running for the highest office in the land, and the thought of Bill Pryor on the Supreme Court should scare the daylights out of any thinking American who cherishes civil liberties and the rule of law.

Meanwhile, we have this question: Is Trump's campaign so out to lunch that no one is aware of Pryor's ties to 1990s gay porn? Trump claims that everyone on his "great" list of 11 potential justices has been vetted? Sure doesn't look like it with Bill Pryor. Does that suggest Trump is lying, or he just has no clue?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pryor is a cocky little SOB, isn't he? (Pardon the pun.) Seems to think it's OK to impose his religious beliefs on the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but Pryor's religious beliefs are built on a mound of hypocrisy. Even he doesn't live by his religious beliefs.

Anonymous said...

Alabama more than ever before, since becoming a state, is on the threshold of contributing in the determining of our nation's next president, tragically if for no other reasons due either of the lesser of two bad choices when having to exist far more sound and qualified, but more importantly NOW as never before a leader with a moral compass, political integrity, with emphasis on a honest transparent administration, TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITIES, apparently are no longer matters for public concerns. Everyday that continues to past by with Alabama remaining on the national media's sidelines, shut-up from revealing longstanding well entrenched deep rooted corruptions will come to a defining point, that Alabama is a follower, deserving of a leader's leftovers.

Anonymous said...

I have little doubt that Pryor would lead us down a path to torture.

Anonymous said...

Any comment on DOJ possible investigation of Airbus and Shelby preventing Obama from appointing 3rd member to importexport bank.

legalschnauzer said...

Is there new info out today about Shelby and export-import bank? I haven't seen anything new, but readers who want to catch up, might check out this URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/business/international/a-single-senator-stymies-the-export-import-bank.html?_r=0

Anonymous said...

Pryor was placed on the fed bench by a combination of Jeff Sessions, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush. That should be enough to disqualify him right there.

Anonymous said...

The number of responses to this story being as importance it presents, when compared to all the "tits, tails, and ding-dongs within the state's administration will surely rise to the level of the public's not really giving a shit about their government, nor the participation[s] in it; just keep on spoonfeedin'em all the happy face political feel goods; maybe such time Clinton landed in Bosnia under rebel fire and most were so amazed, only to find out was greeted by flower girls; the parents at Dover Air Force Base as their dead sons lay within feet of them being told because of a video, then Rice making all the Sunday morning shows advocating same agenda, only to find out later when caught all were fabricated for public consumption. On the other hand Trump a self made billionaire, never before politician outspoken flying by seat of his pants, use to making command decisions has been allowed to be made a public fool of many times over with Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions representing him on national media, and if that wasn't bad enough, Sessions having to be the one putting the bug in his ear about good ole boy Pryor for nomiee for Supreme Court Justice; when Trump ever learns of how Sessions has allowed himself to be setup, knowingly, for future public ridicules; "YOU'RE FIRED"!

Anonymous said...

History reminds us, that both Sessions as attorney general, as Pryor alongside were first after Jim Folsom, Jr. when first thought he was to be one running against Fob James, and doing all they could to manipulate a corruption investigation to beat Folsom; Sessions even bringing in secretly from Mobile FBI offices, min having been former U.S. Attorney to act in clandestine fashions to implicate Folsom, none working out as intended as was later revealed, plus Folsom didn't run, Siegelman did, whereby enters within the three months Pryor's leaning on Siegelman, as Sessions on way to Washington; but both Pryor now attorney general and Sessions senator both refuse to admit that there had ever been any investigation into Folsom, facts surfacing later proves them liars................... Now Siegelman is the target after three months, and its payback for his stance against Pryor in the Tobacco companies settlements with other states that had been a lingering thorn in Pryor ass; as now Sessions old friend from college days joins in, Karl Rove, to deny Siegelman's re-election bid; after having first become good friends with Pryor, buddy, and with his Alabama business friend, Canary, and his wife soon to be U.S. Attorney who will join in with Pryor to prosecute Siegelman to keep him from running for a second time. BUT ALL THESE THINGS ARE COMMON KNOWLEDGE FOR THE MOST PART..............AND NOBODY CARES. BUT WHAT HAS NEVER YET FOR WHATEVER REASONS BEEN BROUGHT FORTH BY THE ALABAMA MEDIA, NATIONAL MEDIAS ARE THE BACK STORIES....???? A republican administration fraudulently imprisons a democratic former governor 8 YEARS AGO; AND ALL DURING THIS TIME THERE HAS EXITED IN POLITICAL POWER IN WASHINGTON, A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS FOR FIRST FOUR YEAR, AND LAST FOUR SAME DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT AND NEVER ONCE ANY JESTURES OF PARDONING ONE OF THEIR PARTIES MOST PROMINENT POTENTIAL RISING FUTURE POLITICANS......WHY ??????? Now Clinton has never mentioned his name, after all her talk about equal justice rights and freedoms.................. it is destined to be the same ole bullshit. Historians and political scientist upon through examination of facts and the times are most assuredly to lay most fault and blame at media front doorsteps for concealments of truths and facts from "we the people" denying us the right to make knowledgable choices as to whom to elect to represent our government. SATISFIED NOW, MR. CAMPBELL ROBERTSON, REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES NEWSPAPER?

e.a.f. said...

Trump not only lies, he doesn't have a clue. Its not an either/or thing, he does both. Whatever he seems to be thinking comes out of his mouth. There doesn't appear to be any control on his brain. Medical science has informed us the frontal lobe closes when we are somewhere around 20. Sometimes that doesn't happen and there isn't a filter. Has anyone taken a scan of Trump's brain?

His Line of "make America great again", well American has always been great. Perhaps not as great as Canada, but it certainly is second in the world. (O.K. I'm Canadian and we have a better medical system) For an American to run on a platform of "making American great again" is saying your country isn't great. Well who the hell wants a leader of their country who doesn't think their country is great. Pick another line at least.

Trump talks about bringing jobs back to the U.S.A. yet he has his own goods manufactured in the countries with the lowest wages in the world. In my opinion, if Jobs come back to America, Americans will be working for the same wages as workers in third world countries.

Trump's list of Supreme Court justices is a joke. Were they vetted? Perhaps, sort of like running through a stream and saying you've had a shower and bath. Trump doesn't care who is on the Supreme Court of American. He can't. He doesn't understand the American legal system. If someone understands the American legal system and how it evolved into one of the greatest ones, in principle, in the world, a candidate would simply not list those Trump has. Its disgusting. Trump's ideas on the justice/court system is akin to the system they have in Communist China.

Bill Pryor ought to make a big impression on those evangelical types but of course as those "born agains" believe, you "confess" your sins and you're good to go. its beyond me, all of it.

If Trump is elected he doesn't have to worry about building a wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico. Both Mexico and Canada could well build them at their own expense to keep the Trumpers out.

Given Trumps candidates for the Supreme Court, and the Republican party platform, I'd suggest at least 10% of the American public will be eligible to apply for and be granted refugee status in Canada. I'm good with that, just check the guns at the border and we'll give you a medical card in exchange. Yes, we're not big on guns/rifles up here. Our murder rate is really, really low though.

Trump, in my opinion, peddles hate and fear. That does not make a country great. It doesn't improve the economy. It improves nothing. In 2015, Canada had its federal election. The then Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, tried the politics of division, specifically Muslims. It didn't work. I doubt if it will work in the U.S.A. either. If you take what Trump says about Muslims or Mexicans and substitute the words Jew, Irish, Black, how would that play in the country? How would people feel then?

That paragraph about first they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics but I was not a Catholic....etc. When they came for me, there was no one left to protest. Canada and the U.S.A. are made up of immigrants. Either we or our forfathers/mothers immigrated to our countries. If you think "picking" on one group, might work, go check your history books and see how well it worked in Germany and the countries they invaded. Eventually those in power will pick on anyone who doesn't agree with them.

Anonymous said...

Some of the actors engaged in their performances, while in their official capacities, or otherwise, have pathways to their political corrupt histories, THE ICEMAN COMETH.