The Media is Legal-Washing the Trump Administration

Remember the Eighth Amendment?

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is short and sweet and nearly impossible to misinterpret.

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

The media seems either ignorant of the Eighth, or afraid to bring it up.  For people whose job it is to report the truth, they sure seem to be afraid of calling a spade a spade.  It’s bad for them.  It’s worse for us.

The media is legal-washing Trump and his administration’s actions.  Something that is not only bad journalism, but harming the country.

When President Donald Trump suggested sending American criminals to El Salvador, not only did his attorney general, Pam Bondi, neglect to mention the Eighth Amendment, reporters didn’t ask him about it.  Nor were headlines blaring “Trump Suggests Violating The Constitution,” in the days following.  Sending Americans thousands of miles from home to a prison notorious for cruelty, arguably a prison designed to maximize human rights violations, is exactly what the Eighth was designed to prevent.

When a web search was performed with the terms ‘trump suggests violating eighth amendment,’ the first story in the results was “Pleading the Eighth? Ex-federal prosecutor says don’t ‘count Trump out yet’ despite massive fine,” from Fox News in 2024.

Fox whines about the 8th when Trump might be penalized

It is telling that the allegedly Trump-hating mainstream media didn’t dare mention it, while Fox literally made a headline claiming an excessive fine on Trump was a violation of the Eighth, even though the number relates to how much he illegally inflated the value of properties in order to get better terms on loans—in other words, his criminal behavior resulted in a profit as great or greater than the fine levied.

Just about every major story, and most minor ones, relating to the Trump Administration are about them violating the law in some way, shape, or form.  And not just minor legal violations, major ones, literally violating The Constitution to do so.

Take the sending of Venezuelans residing in the United States to the CECOT prison in El Salvador.  Many of those Venezuelans seem to have been picked up without a warrant, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.  They were denied due process, a violation of the Fifth Amendment.  They were not given any form of trial, a violation of the Sixth Amendment.  That they were shipped to the prison is very much a violation of the Eighth Amendment.  This is essentially kidnapping someone to send them to be tortured.

It is bizarre

that these facts are not iterated and re-iterated in every single article about the Venezuelans sent off to rot in El Salvador.  It’s not like the government of El Salvador is doing it as a favor to us.  The federal government is paying them $6 million to house the prisoners, which itself is a violation of American law.

I know people are going to bring up the claim that all the people being deported have been in the United States illegally.  Doesn’t matter.   First, The Constitution does not specify that it only applies to American citizens.  Second, we don’t know that claim that specific people are illegally residing in the United States to be true because it hasn’t been proven in court.  What has already been proven in court that at least one person in that group should not have been deported.  There are likely others, possibly American citizens.  Thanks to Yick Wo vs. Hopkins, an 1886 Supreme Court case,  we know that the rights Americans enjoy on American soil apply to everyone who is on American soil, regardless of immigration status.

The excuse the Trump Administration has concocted to justify these kidnappings is that the Alien Enemies Act from 1798 applies.  Of course, it’s only been used a three times over our entire 249-year history, during actual declared wars.  Since we’re not at war with any nation, it can’t be legally used.  Worse for Trump, when it was used during World War II to deport Germans, those Germans actually received due process.

In case it hasn’t been said, or said enough, if the Trump Administration can remove someone from the country without due process, it can remove anyone from the country without due process.  If the Trump administration is the accuser, judge, and jury, and keeps that information secret, including who you are, then you can be disappeared.  And that means that they’ve found a workaround to make The Constitution irrelevant.