How a Court Ruling on Joe Arpaio Could Undermine Civil Rights and the Mueller Investigation

[G_j]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/05/how-a-court-ruling-on-joe-arpaio-could-undermine-civil-rights-and-the-mueller-investigation/

A case on Trump’s pardon of the controversial ex-sheriff could have huge implications for federal separation of powers.

PEMA LEVY
MAY. 14, 2018 6:00

President Donald Trump has attacked the judiciary since his 2016 campaign, from the “Mexican” judge who presided over a case against Trump University to the “so-called judge” who blocked his travel ban last year. Mostly, it’s been just talk (or tweets). But in one case, Trump’s saber-rattling threatens to escalate into a power struggle between two equal branches of government that could have major implications for civil rights enforcement and even the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trump associates in the 2016 election.

Last year, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, who made a name as the country’s most infamous sheriff for racially profiling Latinos and arresting them on suspicion of lacking legal status. Now, in a little-noticed case, the courts could toss out that pardon, and with it the notion that the president’s pardon power is unlimited. If instead they uphold the pardon, as many observers expect, that could send two powerful, if ominous, messages: that law enforcement officials can violate the Constitution’s protections against things like racial discrimination and still gain presidential absolution, and that people caught up in the Russia investigation can refuse to cooperate with court orders without penalty if they have the president’s backing.

Arpaio, now a Republican candidate for the US Senate in Arizona, spent 24 years as the sheriff of Maricopa County, where he directed his officers to target Latino drivers in the Phoenix area and unlawfully detain people suspected of being undocumented, often in tents in the triple-digit desert heat. He famously dressed male inmates in pink underwear and bragged that the food he served was rotten. In 2011, a federal district court ordered Arpaio to stop arresting people suspected of being undocumented; two years later, the same court found that he had discriminated against Latinos and violated the 2011 order to stop targeting them. But Arpaio’s discriminatory policies continued. Finally, last year, a federal judge found him guilty of criminal contempt of court. But before he could be sentenced, Trump swooped in and pardoned him last August.

After his pardon, Arpaio asked the court to vacate the contempt judgement against him. The district court halted its proceedings against Arpaio but refused to clear his record. So Arpaio appealed. In the coming months, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will have an opportunity to review the case and potentially overturn a presidential pardon for the first time in more than a century.

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[lark]

1. Presidential pardons are based on the person being guilty, but pardonned.

It is not meant to expunge the record, so why would it need to be over-turned. What Arpaio and drumpf are asking for is illegal, so just say the charge and conviction stand but he's been pardonned so no jail or $ penalty? Now, this pardon should be over-turned, but I doubt that will happen. They just should follow the law and tell these two assclowns to sit down and shut up.