Judges Rip Trump Apart 75 Times for Violating First Amendment

Despite campaigning to bring back free speech, President Trump has been a serial violator of the First Amendment to the Constitution, according to a new report. 

A Reuters investigation found 75 rulings from federal judges that Trump infringed on constitutional freedoms such as religion, freedom, and the press. Many had to do with the Trump administration’s attacks on pro-Palestine advocacy, and the rulings came from judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents. In September, for example, a Reagan-appointed federal judge found that the administration illegally revoked visas and deported foreign faculty and students over their stance on Palestine and Israel.

“The President’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” Young wrote in his ruling.

Other judicial rebukes had to do with Trump’s attacks on law firms, his termination of grants for universities that seemingly go against his ideological agenda, and use of excessive force against protesters. 

Trump has attacked federal judges who rule against him, leveling insults and accusing them of being activists. While most of the president’s legal losses came from judges appointed by Democratic presidents, 10 of them came from Republican appointees. Many of the lawsuits filed against Trump came from media outlets or organizations that ideologically oppose Trump, Reuters found.  

Oftentimes, lawsuits were challenging Trump executive orders, which have sought to take revenge against Trump’s enemies or target ideological viewpoints that the president opposes. Trump has attacked everything from diversity, equity and ⁠inclusion to gender ideology with executive orders, with only federal courts standing in the way thanks to an unwilling Republican-controlled Congress. All of this goes to show that Trump may be the most anti-free speech president ever.

President Trump’s Justice Department lost yet another attempt to access a state’s unredacted voter rolls, bringing their record to 0 for 20.

U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer on Monday delivered the Trump administration its 20th straight loss, ruling that the Justice Department could not offer a legitimate reason for the executive branch to be granted access to Colorado’s voter rolls. The lawsuit was filed against Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold.

Brimmer, a George W. Bush appointee, dismissed the case with prejudice, as he could not identify a legitimate reason for the executive branch to be granted access to something that has never been under its constitutional jurisdiction.

“In cases where the United States has sought [statewide voter registration list] pursuant to § 20703, courts have found that ‘a voter registration list is not a record subject to retention and preservation under § 20701,’” Brimmer wrote. “Title III’s commands therefore pertain to records and papers that election officials receive from prospective voters to support the exercise of the suffrage by the prospective voters, not lists or other tools created by election officials for the purpose of preserving the information provided by voters and ensuring that persons appearing to vote are registered.”

“The Attorney General is simply not entitled to the NYSVoter List under Title III,” he continued. “This conclusion is supported by six recent district court decisions which have determined that voter registration lists are not records subject to retention and preservation.”

Colorado’s loss likely won’t be the administration’s last. U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson on Tuesday appeared to reject the DOJ’s argument using Title III of the Civil Rights Act (which states that all voting records should be retained and preserved “for a period of twenty-two months”) to justify gaining access to the Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and birthdates of American citizens.

“By my count, this is the 20th court to address this exact issue,” Evanson said. “Is there any meaningful basis on which to distinguish this case from the many other district courts and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals across the country that have dismissed the government’s complaints or denied their motion to compel?”

“No, your Honor,” DOJ attorney Raymond Yang admitted. “Relevant facts are similar to all the other cases.”

It’s abundantly clear that this is not a winning strategy in Trump’s greater mission of purging voter rolls to exert his executive will upon elections that are already free and fair.

“Rather than addressing any real problem, these lawsuits seek private voter information that is protected under state law,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said. “The DOJ’s demands for complete voter rolls are another example of federal overreach and an attempt to exert control over our elections. My office will continue defending Washington voters’ private information while ensuring the integrity of our voter roll remains secure, accurate, and trustworthy.”

While Evanson is a Biden appointee, Brimmer and 11 other judges who rejected the Trump administration’s voter suppression efforts were appointed by Republican presidents—with eight being appointed by Trump himself. The DOJ has now sued in 30 total states and the District of Columbia: California, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Arizona, Virginia, Idaho, and Washington — all unsuccessfully.

Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn each reneged on their promises to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein, with Tillis even leaving them waiting in his office for 45 minutes before they gave up.

A group of Epstein survivors on Tuesday accused Blanche and Cornyn of going back on their word, as the senators prepared to vote in favor of Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general after he provided a weak promise in writing to kill President Trump’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

“The treatment we received from senators throughout this process was just as revealing. Senator Tillis publicly invited us, on camera, to come to his office and promised to meet with us. We did. We waited for 45 minutes in his lobby, only to be told by a staffer he would not meet with us after all,” the survivors wrote in a joint statement.

“Senator Cornyn also refused to hear directly from survivors before casting his vote. Senators Tillis and Cornyn were not willing to sit across from us and answer for the vote they were preparing to cast. If they believed they were doing the right thing, they should have had the courage to look survivors in the eye and tell us why. The message was unmistakable: They wanted us to go away. We are not going away.”

Tillis’s snubbing is particularly nasty given that he made a big fuss about not voting for Blanche’s confirmation unless he met with Epstein survivors. Blanche did eventually meet with survivors, but it did not go well, as survivors reported he told them to “get to the point” and to talk to the FBI instead. Survivor Danielle Bensky called the meeting “a box-checking exercise to secure Tillis’ vote,” and noted he “offered no meaningful explanation for how the redaction failures happened, who approved the release, or what steps he would take to prevent survivors from being exposed again.”

Before Tillis ghosted the survivors, he promised on camera to invite them to his office.

“I wanna meet—not with the attorneys, but with the survivors. And have a discussion about that stuff,” Tillis said. “I wanna see specific action items. And some of that could even have to do with investigations. My office is right around the corner.... I gotta rush … but I wanna have that meeting. I don’t want suits in the room. I want victims, and me.”

Tillis and Cornyn are both outgoing senators who would have lost nothing for being genuine and transparent. Instead of actually acting upon any of their own stated principles, they opted to play political theatre with the emotions of these survivors, unable to even offer them the basic decency of coming to a meeting they said they’d be at. We’re talking about women who survived abuse from perhaps the most infamous predator of the century.

Republican Senator John Cornyn tried to claim Tuesday that Republicans didn’t have any power over President Trump.

After Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Cornyn, voted to send acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation to the full Senate Tuesday, a reporter asked the Texas senator whether he was concerned about Trump continuing to say he wants to find a way to pay January 6 insurrectionists.

“Well, there’s nothing we could do to, uh, rein in the president when he said he likes the [anti-weaponization] fund and wishes it still exists, but the fact of the matter is it’s dead, and that’s all we could do under the circumstances,” Cornyn replied.

Cornyn and his fellow Republicans have had countless opportunities to rein in the president. After making a big deal about Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund, Cornyn and his colleague, Senator Thom Tillis, settled for a weak agreement full of loopholes. And last week, Republicans shot down an amendment that would have killed Trump’s tax audit immunity, the other big issue with the president’s IRS settlement. In June, all but three Republicans voted against a Democratic attempt to kill the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Senate Democrats also introduced the “Drain the Slush Fund Act” in June, but no Republicans have signed off on it. It all fits a pattern in Trump’s second term: Republicans have a problem with something Trump has proposed or is doing, then the administration reaches out to them, and then they fall in line.

President Donald Trump has ordered contractors to redo weeks of work on a new helipad for the White House, after already demanding workers speed up construction.

For more than a month, contractors have worked around the clock to complete Trump’s helipad, which he directed to be built without any official notice. Now the contractors have been forced to take apart their work, according to photographs obtained by The Washington Post. It’s unclear how much money the additional alterations will cost, or if the helipad will be completed on schedule.

In early July, Clark Construction received a last-minute demand to complete the helipad by September 17, adding an estimated $875,000 to the price tag in the process. The government’s request, which indicated that Trump hoped to have the helipad ready for an “upcoming state visit,” was made just days after the president invited his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to come on September 24.

That’s not the only reason it’s an awkward time to be ordering redos. The Department of Justice recently admitted in court that the lining peeling off the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of “flawed” application by Trump’s handpicked contractors.

Clark Construction similarly received a no-bid contract to construct the new helipad. Now, it seems the former slumlord may be finding it increasingly difficult to manifest his visions of grandeur.

The helipad is part of a $13 million renovation project that also included work on the South Portico and driveway. Previously, Trump announced that Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that builds Marine One helicopters, would cover the cost of a $5 million or $6 million helipad, complete with a White House seal carved out of granite. It seems likely that American taxpayers will pay for the rest.

This is the latest renovation project Trump has demanded at the White House, which the president treats like one of his gaudy resorts and not federal land. Last month, the front of the White House was covered in a massive tarp as the front doors underwent security improvements and repairs were made to the iconic columns on the North Portico. And lest we forget: There’s also the demolition of the East Wing, the paving of the Rose Garden, and the president’s outrageous $600 million ballroom.