EDITOR:

In a May 4th interview, President Trump was asked whether he is required to “uphold the Constitution of the United States as president.” The president said, “I don’t know.”

Before taking office, the Constitution requires the president-elect to take an oath that includes, “I do solemnly swear(or affirm) I will…preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

As a member of Congress, you also have taken the oath to “support and defend the Constitution,” and that you “will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

According to The Heritage Foundation’s “Support and Defend: Understanding the Oath of Office”. The author, Matthew Spaulding, cites Justice Joseph Story’s 1833 “Commentaries on the Constitution”…(O)officers sworn to support the Constitution are “conscientiously bound to abstain from all acts inconsistent with it.”

The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to give basic due process before shipping people to foreign countries. In one case, deportees were sent to a country that was not their home country, South Sudan. According to the federal judge in that case, the administration has “unquestionably” violated the federal court order to provide due process as required by the 5th and 14th Amendments.

When asked in a committee hearing the meaning of “habeas corpus,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it was the constitutional provision that permits the president to remove people from the United States and take away their rights. Her answer was not remotely correct. Found in Article I of the Constitution, habeas corpus is the right of an individual to challenge unlawful incarceration.

Secretary Noem had taken the standard federal oath to protect and defend the Constitution, including a commitment to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” Secretary Noem displayed ignorance of her duty to the Constitution.

Do you have any solution for correcting Secretary Noem’s and the president’s apparent ignorance? Can you assure us that the president and perhaps others within the administration will honor our Constitutional protections? Free speech? Speedy and public trials? Right to privacy? To bear arms? Equal protection? Freedom from unreasonable searches? Our right against self-incrimination?

Richard Clark

Escanaba