Candidate is already under fire from both Democrats and Republicans for remark that judge of Mexican descent would be ineligible to oversee case against him

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said “it’s possible” that Muslim judges, in addition to Hispanic jurists, would be biased against him and thus ineligible to oversee any case involving him.

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Democrats and Republicans alike have rebuked Trump for his insistence that a federal judge, an American citizen since his birth to Mexican immigrants in Indiana, is biased because of the businessman’s plan to build a wall on the southern border.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel is overseeing one of three cases brought against Trump University, a for-profit institution that has been accused of defrauding students of tens of thousands of dollars and called “a total lie” and “fraudulent scheme” by former employees. Last week, Curiel ordered the release of testimony and documents related to the suit, prompting Trump’s accusation of bias.

Trump expanded this argument in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation that was broadcast on Sunday. Because of his proposal to “temporarily” ban Muslims from entering the US, he said, it “would be possible, absolutely” that he would consider a Muslim judge inappropriate in court.

“He’s a member of a club or society very strongly from Mexico, which is fine,” Trump said of Curiel. “But I say he’s got bias. I’m going to build a wall. I’m going to build a wall.”



But although the Republican candidate has complained “this judge is treating me very unfairly” and claims to have heard from “numerous lawyers” about his argument, his lawyers have not asked Curiel to recuse himself.

Race, ethnicity and religion are not legal grounds for a recusal, courts have ruled for decades, and the complaint runs afoul of basic US civil and religious rights.

In 1998, the second circuit court of appeals briskly threw out one such claim of bias, ruling: “Courts have repeatedly held that matters such as race or ethnicity are improper bases for challenging a judge’s impartiality.”

The chief justice of the court added that who appointed a judge and an attorney’s political stances were similarly baseless complaints. “Zero plus zero is zero,” he wrote.

Curiel was appointed to the bench by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and to federal court by Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Trump was unmoved, however, even when it was pointed out to him a founding ideal of the United States, however imperfectly realized, is that Americans should not judge each other according to the origins of their parents.

“I’m not talking about tradition, I’m talking about common sense,” he replied. “You know, we have to stop being so politically correct in this country.”

Trump maintained that Curiel’s ethnicity “has a lot to do with” the course of the civil suit in which he sits. Trump, whose ancestors changed their German surname Drumpf to Trump, added that he appreciates pride in heritage, but said without specifics: “There’s something going on.”

Republicans who have endorsed Trump reproached him for his insistence on drawing race into the court case. The Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, told NBC’s Meet the Press he found Trump’s remarks reprehensible: “I couldn’t disagree more with a statement like that.”

McConnell added: “This is a man who was born in Indiana. All of us came here from somewhere else. Almost all Americans are either near term immigrants, like my wife, who came here at age eight, not speaking a word of English, or the rest of us whose ancestors were risk-takers.”

But McConnell hewed to his lukewarm endorsement of Trump, and refused to call the comment racist.

“Is he the perfect candidate? He isn’t,” he said, with a caveat for party members: “Whatever you think about Donald Trump, he’s certainly a different direction. I think that’s what the country needs.”

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Earlier this week McConnell’s counterpart in the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, disagreed with Trump’s remarks but refused to disavow his endorsement of the man.

On Sunday even a staunch Trump ally, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, declared the presumptive nominee’s comments “inexcusable”.

Gingrich told Fox News Sunday that though the candidate had a right to criticize a judge or a decision, his accusations of racial bias were out of line and raised questions about Trump’s temperament.

“He is an American,” Gingrich said of Curiel. “Period. When you come to America, you get to become an American and Trump, who has grandparents who came to the US, should understand this as much as anybody.”

Democrats also seized on the issue. Their likely nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, told ABC’s This Week that Trump’s racially charged rhetoric was an attempt “to divert attention from the very serious fraud charges against Trump University”, and out of line.

“Judge Curiel is as American as I am and certainly as American as Donald Trump is,” she said.