The Daily Show: Ears Edition - From the Archives: Anthony D. Romero - August 31, 2018

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero argues that President Trump's Muslim-targeted travel ban is unconstitutional and fundamentally un-American. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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you get your podcast. Please welcome Anthony Romero. Hello Trevor. Honest question. Hello Anthony. Hello sir. Did you ever think as a lawyer one day people will be cheering for you when you walked into a room? No. No. Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome to the show and thank you for coming at what is probably the craziest time in history? No. No. Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome to the show and thank you for coming at what is probably the craziest time in the history? Craziest time. Yeah.

I've been around this block about 16 years. I've never felt anything quite like this. What does it feel like to have all of these executive orders coming out and to be an organization that is fighting for or against, rather, the constitutional loopholes that Trump and these people are trying to find. It's a bit breathless, but it's exhilarating at the same time. And this president is going down such a far wrong-headed path. I mean, these executive orders, they really are off the charts.

And this most recent one with the Muslim ban. Yeah. It's just astonishing that we would have a president of the United States and act an order within a week of him becoming president that is so fundamentally at the core un-American, immoral, unconstitutional. No, first of all, I mean, I'm sure you're keeping abreast with everything, but now the administration has come out and said, it's not a Muslim. Well, who are they kidding? Who are they kidding? Well, not you, clearly.

You know, that's seven countries, predominantly Muslims. And then the real smoking gun is that in the executive order, they carved out an exception for minority religions. And then President Trump is doing contemporaneous talks on radio, Christian, to, th And, to, to, th And, th And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, whoo, whoo, whoo, thi, whoo, whoo, whoo, whose, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, is, thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, thi, thi, thi, is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, who's, who's, thi, th radio, Christian broadcast radio saying that we want to protect the Christians. Who are they kidding? Of course it's a Muslim ban. I mean, he's a straight talker, just tell it to a straight. You promise it's a Muslim ban.

You've given us a Muslim ban. We read it as a Muslim ban. And now you say, oh, you know, people would be like, oh, but you're the ACLU, of course, you're going to go against Trump. But the judges ruled the same thing. I would love to know this. Yeah. Saturday comes. Friday night, the ban happens.

Yeah. And we never expected this stuff to we thought they would just implement it at some point. We thought anyone who had been given a visa, who had a work authorization or a green card would just be allowed into the country. They have been allowed in after all. Yes. Saturday morning, I'm taking down my Christmas tree. I finally get around to it. I'm watching the news and then my phone starts going crazy. People are people at the airports. We are in their their their their their their their their their their their their, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their work, their work, their work, their work, their work, their work, their work, their work, their work, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their work, their, their, their work, their, their work, their work, their, their work, their work, the are being turned away at airports. And I'm like, oh no, how is this happening? And we rush people to the airports, we are in touch with other organizations who are helping us identify refugees.

Yeah. They're turning people away who had been given visas to enter this country. And so then it's all hands-on-deck. Then we send out lawyers to the airports at JFK, SFO, LAX, O'Hare. When we hear the stories of some of the customs officials and immigration officials going against the judge's orders though, I mean that's, that's, that's a, I mean a step that is that is that normal? Is that them going against? Because the judge ruled that there should be a stake, right?

On Saturday night, at 8 p.m. At were in front of her in this emergency hearing. She understood that the equities involved were too great. She understood that people were being deported back to countries where they were in harm's way. Yes. There were individuals being deported back after helping our government fight the war against ISIS and terrorists. Individuals who had worked for our government for 10 years as a to to the U.S. military for 10 years as a translator, and they were going to send them back on an airplane.

And the judge understood that and said, no, wait a minute, we're going to hit the pause button. I want to consider this, longer, but for now we're going to how they were trying to defend this. I understand what Trump and these people are saying, but what are they saying? Well, it was pretty remarkable. I was in the courtroom. It was Saturday night, after taking down to Christmas Tree, doing a couple TV shows, I went to the courthouse in Brooklyn. The government lawyers were caught completely, you know,

empty handed the government. The judge would ask very basic questions. Well, how many people are you not allowing out? We don't know, Your Honor. Well, how are you enforcing the executive order? They would all look at each other and say, are you going to take that question? Then there was some woman on some, from calling it from Washington, who was really the voice of the government.

She was like the most basic questions. And you could see the judge was saying, well, we're just going to preserve the status quo. We're not going to deport anyone. We're not going to send them back to the countries where they're in danger. We're going to preserve the status quo, and then we're going to look at this afresh, the ACLU. I was a young boy, 35, I'm 51. Seven days before 9-11, and then post-911,

America saw a spate of orders coming down as, you know, the NSA, you know, the Patriot Act. Right. Do you see any parallels between what was happening then and what people are seeing now under the Trump administration without an inciting incident? I do see the difference. I see the similarities and the differences. I see the similarities in which we have government officials who are using a moment,

9-11 or using their power today to push through an ideological agenda that really runs, th... th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the th, th, the thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the thi, the the the thi, their, their, their, their, the the the their, their, their, the the the the their, the the the the the the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thruiiiiiiiiiiiiia, thea, thiiiiiia, the thii, the the the the thi,-11 or using their power today to have pushed through an ideological agenda that really runs contrary to our nation's founding values, that we're a nation of immigrants, that we believe in due process, we believe that your innocence are proven guilty. And all those efforts where I play after 9-11. The thing that's different about this moment,

why I'm so encouraged is because the reaction of people like in your audience and people on the streets is really quite different than the immediate aftermath of 9-11. They were not people turning out on the streets. That's powerful. In fact, I mean, it's weird to say this, but Trump has been good for business for you because over the weekend, is it true that you raised $24 million, whereas in a normal year the ACLU raises about $4 million to... Online, online. Online, that's it. Yeah. And the response was incredible. I mean, folks came to us.

And folks come to us because they understand what's at stake Yes, people turn out I mean when I came out of the courthouse They were almost a thousand people outside the courthouse. I've never seen anything like that I've been to a lot of courthouses usually I just walk out And I try to find my way home. I come out and I'm like who are these? Who are? Who are? the? Who are? Who are? Who are? Who are? Who are? Who are? Who are? the? Who? the? the? Who? the? Who? the, they? Who? Who? Who? Who? the. they? Who? Who? Who? the. th. th. Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? th. Who? Who? th? Who? Who? Who? Who? th? th? th? th? th? th? th. Who? the? the? the? the? the? the? the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to? th. to? th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I don't think we have this many staff numbers. And what's so remarkable now is that people understand what's at stake. They're willing to take action. They're willing to associate themselves with organizations like ours that are going to fight the good fight.

And that's what's different about this time. President Trump may try to push unconstitutional and wrongheaded and immoral executive or their the are there and more importantly the people are there in this case. That is powerful. I just have, you know one thing that's been bugging me is when you read through US history and you try and figure out the constitutionality of it. It's so hard because everything is up for interpretation. Do you believe that the courts will rule that this order is unconstitutional, considering that in 1952, the president was given the ability to ban people from certain areas if they felt they were a threat to the country? And to be clear, the president is usually given great discretion in matters of

immigration. Yes. But I also think that our courts are strong enough and our countries come a long way since 195, 1965, even in the 70s. And with this order is so patently unconstitutional. You know, and the idea that they pick seven countries that are predominantly Muslim, yes. They're going to protect Christians from those countries, but not the Muslims. The fact that they goes right in the face of due process equal protection clauses. It violates the v violates the first violates the first the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact th th th th th th th th th is th is th is the fact th is th is th is th. T. T. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It is, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It is is, th. It is, th. It is, th. It is, th. It is, the the the the the the th. It's, the th. It's, the the. It's, the the. I is, thee. I. I. I'm. I'ma. I'ma. their. te. their. their protection clauses. It violates the First Amendment. The First Amendment is like the hollowed ground for constitutional lawyers. It basically says the government shall not discriminate against nor favor any one religion. That's what non-establishment and free exercise means.

It's a journey that I guess like you're saying no one has been on before. And the reason why the bodies matter is that we're still the David to the government's Goliath.... the the the the government's Goli.. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, is, the the the, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1. the.1. the.1. the.1.1. the. the. the. the, the, the, the, the, I guess, like you're saying, no one has been on before. And the reason why the bodies matter is that we're still the David to the government's Goliath. There are 19,000 lawyers on the payroll for the U.S. federal government. There are 11,000 lawyers who will work for Jeff Sessions. I got 300. And the reason why the support from the public is so important is that we need to scale up up up up up up up up up, the the their, their, their, to, to, their, to, to, to, their, to, to, to, to, their, their, to, to, their, their, to, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, somea, some need to scale up, we need to up our game, we need to hire as many good-minded men and women across this country to sue them as often, as vigorously. You're serious.

You're serious. It's like the longest episode of law and order ever. I'm loving this. Before I let you go, that's an interesting thing that you say it'll be a long four th th th th th th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, tho to be to be thi, the the to be to be to be to be to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the th. th. th. th. We's th. We's thi, the the the the the thi, the thi, the thi, the thi, thi, thi, the the the the. the. the the the the the the the the the the the the thi. the thi. th know. Before I let you go, yeah. That's an interesting thing that you say, it'll be a long four years. This is just week two. Oh my God. So, oh, you guys forgot? You guys forgot? Looking forward. What do you think are some of the scariest or just even the most egregious examples of the Trump administration's intentions to bypass what Americans consider the law in the country.

Are there any things that you're looking out at going, we need to worry about that? Well, if they try to violate this judge's order, which we're now in the middle of looking at whether or not individuals are complying with it, that's the canary in the coal mine. That means that this administration thinks that they don't have to heed federal judges. That would be very dangerous and very problematic. If they go the next step further enacting other executive orders that go after LGBT individuals, or to try to defund Planned Parenthood

one of America's most storied, important organization. Those will be our alimos. can make sure we fight those battles. I have every confidence that the American people, we're too good-minded. We're too optimistic. Our values mean something. And I think ultimately we prevail against the forces that would try to undo the very best of what we are.

You've done a great job this weekend. Everyone is behind you. Thank you so much. Everyone is behind you. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Anthony Romero, everybody. The Daily Show with Covernoa, Ears Edition.

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