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The following is an opinion column by R Muse*

Even for those whose job it is to keep tabs on the consequences of Americans installing a bonafide fascist in the White House, it is getting to be a substantial chore to keep up with the atrocities coming at a frightening breakneck speed. It is apparent that there is a reason the public servants who take the oath of office and swear to defend and support the U.S. Constitution should have a fairly clear understanding of the nations founding document and uncontested law of the land; they are required to follow it like every other citizen and that includes the mentally ill fascist in chief Donald Trump.

Of course Trumps executive overreach banning Muslims from a select few Muslim majority countries was both contrary to 239 years of American history and a decidedly bigoted act. It was also a decidedly profit-driven act because Trump only banned immigrants from the Muslim-majority nations that he doesnt have business investments in. It is also noteworthy that the countries he picked on have not been responsible for the death of even one American on American soil.

The Muslim-majority nations that are responsible for all deaths on American soil, including the Saudis responsible for the terror attacks on 911, were spared Trumps executive action; only because he has investment and business interests in those countries. One wonders how the Trump will explain that little factoid to his bigoted followers; until realizing that they are stupid enough to believe whatever dirty lie the Trump tells them about how the media is lying about his very selective and profit-driven hatred of Islam.

Despite Trumps selective defense against radical Islam he claims is the purpose of the ban, there are, as Slates Mark Joseph Stern points out, serious constitutional problems with Trumps executive order as a whole. Forget, for a moment, that Trumps order gave preferential treatment to Christians and denigrated Islam, what any reasonable person considers a religious test to enter a secular nation, or that Trumps order unilaterally established a state religion; he is shredding a mainstay of Americas democracy and civil rights. Trumps order violates the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution because he believes the document cannot possibly apply to the Trump.

What any fascist worth being compared to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein knows is necessary to earn their stripes is eliminating the concept of due process; exactly what Trumps executive overreach accomplished. According to a lawsuit filed on Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Trumps religious, unconstitutional, illegal and profit-driven executive order has led to the flagrantly unconstitutional detention of perfectly legal immigrants whose lone crime is their national origin and religion. As any sane human being with an ounce of intellect and gram of decency knows intrinsically, Trumps nasty order isnt only wrong on moral and human grounds, it is also illegal in a nation with a 239-year old Constitution.

Specifically, besides establishing, by Republican executive order, a religious test to create an America that is evangelically pure, Trump violated the Fifth Amendment he just publicly swore to god to uphold. That Amendment provides basic procedural guarantees to any person detained in the United States no matter if they are natural citizens, visitors, immigrants or Muslims. The Fifth Amendment forbids the government, including a bigoted fascist government employee in the White House who thinks he is above the law, from depriving any individual of liberty without due process of law. That includes an arrest warrant, indictment, charge, legal counsel, trial and so on.

Thus far, the people being detained according to Trumps order all arrived in America lawfully and with the requisite documentation issued by the United States government. As noted by Mr. Stern, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act those immigrants, Muslims or not, have a legal right to apply for asylum and have their claims processed by federal authorities. But this is Trumps America and instead of adhering to the law or the Constitution, on orders from fascist Trump the government has placed most immigrants in detention without a hearing or any kind of judicial oversight (due process), and banned them from speaking with legal advocates (attorneys).

It doesnt matter how god-like Trump believes he is, he cannot issue an order that unconstitutionally deprives anyone in America, immigrant or not, of their liberty without due process of law. The government cannot indefinitely detain a lawful visitor without a hearing or any semblance of reasonable suspicion just because a so-called president issued an unconstitutional executive dictate. He is also prohibited by the equal protection segment of the Due Process clause from singling out lawful visitors based on their religion or nation of origin.

Still, Trumps order mandates that federal law enforcement officers ignore longstanding fundamental constitutional principles because he thinks he can implement an illegal system. An illegal system, by the way, that informs any thinking person that in Trumps America the people are ruled by a government of one man, not laws or a Constitution. It is a governing entity that has no compunction about locking up [his] perceived enemies based on their identity and religion.

The only reason due process laws even exist was to limit an authoritarian tyrants ability to summarily order unlawful arrests of his perceived enemies. Obviously, Trump really does want to emulate Philippine president Rodrigo Dutertes practice of detaining human beings without any evidence they violated any law or judicial process. At least Trump has not yet order law enforcement officials to summarily execute the legal immigrants, but if left unchallenged by decent Americans it cant be far off.

Donald Trump is a danger to the nation, and the world, on myriad levels, and paramount among those dangers is his flagrant disregard for any laws, but particularly the nations law of the land, the Constitution. One thing is clear about Trump; he not only has no concept that he is not above the law, he willingly trashes the Constitution he just swore to somebodys god that he would support and defend. That is so much more than just really bad news, it is a Constitutional crisis informing that America is now really in crisis.

The above commentary is the sole opinion of its author.

Constitution, Constitutional crisis, Due Process, Fifth Amendment, immigrants, Islamophobia, Muslim immigrants, trump, trump muslim ban

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Opinion: Trump Creates a Constitutional Crisis With Muslim Ban - PoliticusUSA