On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump made many policy proposals that are blatantly unconstitutional, unlawful, and un-American in nature. On Sunday, November 16, the ACLU of New Mexico published an open letter to President-elect Trump in full page ads in the Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, and Las Cruces Sun-News, putting him on notice that the ACLU of New Mexico stands ready to fight against any attempt to inflict these harmful and discriminatory proposals upon our community.
Read the full letter below:
Dear President-elect Trump,
For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has stood as this nation’s premier defender of freedom and justice for all.
As you assume the nation’s highest office, we must ask you now as president-elect to reconsider and change course on certain campaign promises you have made.
Specifically, you promised to:
– amass a deportation force to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants
– ban the entry of Muslims and institute aggressive surveillance programs targeting them
– restrict a woman’s right to abortion services
– reauthorize waterboarding and other forms of torture
– change our nation’s libel laws and restrict freedom of expressionThese proposals are not simply un-American and wrong-headed. They are unlawful and unconstitutional, and would violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, as well as other statutes and international treaties.
Many of our country’s most cherished rights are the result of ACLU litigation and advocacy. They include the Scopes trial (the right to teach evolution in public science classrooms) and the following Supreme Court cases: Korematsu (challenging Japanese American internment); Miranda (the right to remain silent); Griswold (the right to contraception); Loving (the right of interracial couples to marry); Gideon (the right to a court-appointed attorney if you can’t afford one); Windsor (striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act); and Obergefell (the right of same-sex couples to marry) and others. We have worked with and battled American presidents of both parties to ensure that our country makes good on its founding premise as the land of the free.
If you do not reverse course and endeavor to make these campaign promises a reality, you will have to contend with the full firepower of the ACLU at your every step. The staff of the ACLU of New Mexico, as well as the hundreds of ACLU litigators and activists and the millions of card-carrying members and supporters across the country, stand ready to fight against any encroachment on our hard-won freedoms and rights.
One thing is certain: we will be eternally vigilant every single day of your presidency and when you leave the Oval Office, we will do the same with your successor.
