Arpaio Pardon Shows Trump's Contempt for Rule of Law

Upon reflection, though, his action was even more troubling to law-abiding Americans because of its larger implications with respect to the rule of law within our democracy. While the Constitution does give the President the ability to pardon Citizens for federal crimes, that ability has been used sparingly over the years, with the pardons almost always having been granted only after much deliberation, after many years have passed since conviction, and after expressions of remorse by the guilty party.

Consequently, the Arpaio pardon smacks of political cronyism, exactly the type of political "swamp" behavior that Mr. Trump would have us believe he was opposed to when he was running for office.

(Arpaio image from politico.com)

The pardon also is causing Citizens in general to question whether the predictability and fairness of how a person will be treated within the US legal system will continue in a Trump administration. If a friend or supporter of the sitting President can violate the law with impunity, we will have moved from equal treatment under the law to the rule of tyranny, where one individual (the President) can be the arbiter of right and wrong. This was not what the framers of our Constitution intended when giving the President the ability to pardon Citizens for federal crimes, nor is it what most Americans believe.

Finally, the nature of the crime being pardoned is concerning to many Americans, particularly those in legal circles. In this case, Mr. Arpaio was a law enforcement official who swore to uphold the law and who willfully violated the law. The fact that this was the type of behavior pardoned by Mr. Trump adds to Citizens' questioning of just how deeply committed Mr. Trump is to the rule of law, the bedrock of our society and our freedoms.

Even Mr. Trump, who seems to relish in the publicity he receives by taking positions most Americans disagree with, may have feared the backlash for granting the Arpaio pardon. With the weekly news cycle completed and the news media focused on Texas' bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Harvey, his announcement of the pardon late on a Friday made it seem that Mr. Trump was trying to hide his decision, knowing that it would not be well-received by law enforcement, the legal community, and Citizens concerned about the government infringing on innocent Citizens' constitutional rights.

(image from kjzz.org)

For those of you who may not be familiar of all the details in the Arpaio case, Mr. Arpaio had been ordered by a federal court to stop trying to enforce federal immigration laws, which were outside of his jurisdiction, unless specifically asked by federal law enforcement to provide assistance. He was prohibited from detaining people he thought were illegally in this country unless they had broken state or local laws that were within his jurisdiction.

Mr. Arpaio deliberately disobeyed this court order and in the process, has been accused of violating numerous Constitutional rights of US Citizens and legal aliens. Over his 20+ year tenure, questions also had been raised about injuries and deaths within his county's jails, his department's treatment of women, and why the county had to pay out millions of dollars for settlements in cases brought against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. As a consequence of these activities, Sheriff Arpaio was handily defeated in his last bid for re-election.

(Newly-elected Sheriff Paul Penzone, from abc15.com)

Despite the fact that illegal immigration was falling during the Obama years and that more illegal aliens had been deported under Mr. Obama than under any other administration, Mr. Trump has spent his brief political career pandering to the fears of those Americans who have been misled by right-wing media into believing otherwise. He apparently made the political calculation that taking an action that would appeal to a portion of his political base and to the country's white supremacists was more important than supporting the rule of law.

And, unfortunately, he either is not smart enough to understand that or, perhaps worse, understands it but deliberately went ahead and issued the pardon.