I don’t know a whole lot about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who serves on the District Court for the Southern District of California, but I can surmise some things from his Wikipedia page. I see that he was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and that he received undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Indiana. I can see that he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of California from 1989 to 2002, which makes it appear that he was appointed to this position by President George Herbert Walker Bush. I see that he served as an Assistant D.A. for the Central District of California from 2002 to 2006, which means he was reassigned during the Presidency of George Walker Bush. I see that he was elected to the Superior Court of San Diego in 2007, during the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There’s not much in that biography to suggest that Judge Curiel is a partisan Democrat, nor that he is some typical Southern California Mexican-American who might be unnaturally offended by Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out the rapists. It’s true that President Obama nominated him to the federal district court in 2012, but it’s also true that his nomination was confirmed unanimously and uncontroversially in a Senate voice vote.
The reason Judge Curiel is in the news today is because he’s presiding over a civil suit against Donald Trump and the fake university Trump set up to defraud people out of tens of thousands of dollars each in return for run of the mill real estate investment advice, and because Trump just devoted twelve minutes of a speech he delivered in San Diego to what amounted to an “extended tirade” against the judge.
Mr. Trump’s attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was extraordinary not just in its scope and intensity but for its location: Before a crowd packed into a convention center here that had been primed for the New York billionaire with a warm-up speech from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
“I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd of several thousand booed. “He is not doing the right thing.”
The most disturbing thing about Trump’s verbal assault was the racial component.
“We’re in front of a very hostile judge,” Mr. Trump said. “The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he’s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.”
Mr. Trump also told the audience, which had previously chanted the Republican standard-bearer’s signature “build that wall” mantra in reference to Mr. Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexican border, that Judge Curiel is “Mexican.”
“What happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that’s fine,” Mr. Trump said.
Trump went on to attack Judge Curiel’s integrity:
“I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK?”
What had Judge Curiel done to arouse Trump’s wrath? He recently agreed to delay the trial until late November, after the voters will have gone to the polls, so he hadn’t tried to use the trial to damage Trump’s prospects of becoming president. Yet, on the same day he was personally attacked, the Judge ordered the unsealing of “a series of internal Trump University documents that Trump’s lawyers asked be kept from the public.” In fact, while the order wasn’t issued until a few hours after the Trump’s speech, the hearing on the motion to unseal them was occurring while Trump spoke. It’s not clear if the judge was even aware of Trump’s remarks when he made his ruling.
What is clear is that Trump made a nakedly racist appeal in a border city against a Latino judge in order to cast doubt on the integrity of that judge and of our entire federal legal system. And he did it to shield himself from accountability for committing what appears to be blatant fraud.
This is despicable on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Thanks for pointing out that although Judge Curiel’s opinion was issued after the Trump rally in which he made the racist attack, there’s no evidence that the decision to release the documents had anything to do with the attack. Much of the press coverage makes it seem as though there was a causal relationship. In fact, the documents were released in response to a motion to intervene for the purpose of moving to unseal the documents filed by the Washington Post. Judge Curiel issued a 12-page opinion filled with legal citations in support of his order to unseal the documents, so it wasn’t some seat of the pants decision.
Background: courts are typically reluctant to allow parties to file documents under seal when a matter of public importance is involved (as opposed, say, to the privacy of information about a minor). The case law on access to court records is quite favorable to newspapers who seek unsealing. Judge Curiel’a meticulous opinion is very much in the mainstream of such decisions.
Trump and Trump University opposed releasing the documents on the ground that they contained supposed “trade secrets.” Both Magistrate Judge Gallo and Judge Curiel reviewed the documents and concluded that they contained, not trade secrets but “very routine and commonplace information.” That finding supports the plaintiffs’ claim that they were promised inside knowledge but received only “commonplace” information. In other words, the opinion on the documents reinforces the plaintiffs’ claim of fraud. The opinion didn’t say so explicitly, but it didn’t have to.
Trump. Republican Reality. Awfulness on a grander scale than anything since Nixon.
And they love his tone. Covers and enriches their shallowness.
Take back their country? They want to commandeer the USA.
Sick, vacuous, mean spirited, selfish people back Trump.
Yup, he has a chance of winning…
On its face, taken entirely as a statement of fact, this story would enrage anyone with a sense of decency and respect. If you read this story without the Trump name attached, you would automatically think, “My God, what an asshole!” and hope he would get his comeuppance.
But if you haven’t learned by now that the Trump Teflon works regardless of how offensive and wrong his actions are, it’s too late. A Federal judge isn’t safe, and Trump’s fans will just see it as a hero defending himself against the Establishment.
gag
Did anyone think this wouldn’t be how he would run the executive branch? He’s been fascist signaling the entire time. I guess maybe an explicit example of “how” it would translate. This is just the beginning of what could potentially be. Cops back Trump. A lot in the military back Trump.
Yes, corruption of the rule of law and attacks on an independent judiciary are a critical feature of fascism, historically. During his rise to power, Hitler was described by opposition journalists as a “political criminal”. Phony kangaroo courts run by Nazi henchmen was the ultimate face of German “justice”….
And the coppers and generals tend to support the Strongman, and the “man” in the word is essential!
Someone explain why Sanders wants to legitimize this guy by having a debate.
Well, Hillary is too frightened to debate him. Of course, she promised to, but we already knew she was a LIAR! Maybe she should divorce Bill and marry Trump. They are a pair. Neither should be anywhere near Washington, much less the Oval Office.
She seemed like a corrupt, Wall Street loving, fearful, weakling in the last nine debates she had with Sanders. You could smell the fear the sixth time they debated–it was powerful.
I’m sure she’d love your advice about how to prepare for a Trump debate. How frequently should she refer to “illegals stealing American jobs”, for example? I know you’ve made a close study of that topic.
I THINK that KC2669 was applying Poe’s law (but wish I could be sure).
Have you all been living in caves?
Google is your friend.
http://www.nyulawreview.org/sites/default/files/pdf/NYULawReview-72-2-Bright.pdf
I think AUSAs are just hired, rather than being appointed.
I think you may be right about that.
And most of the Sunday bobbleheads I saw failed to take the attack on Judge Curiel seriously. In fact, a couple of them (cough Chuckie Todd cough) compared Trump’s reaction to bad campaign news favorably to Hillary’s equivocations. He just bulldozes through and attacks his “enemies”, they said in admiration, while Clinton dodges and feints carefully on the edge of troubles. Bad week for Clinton in comparison, they said.
I’m going to return to stopping watching those shows for a while. It’s bad for my mental health, and I learn nothing other than how much they are going to sandbag Clinton so they can get their “entertaining” “horse race”. These people are the scourge of the public, not its protectors and informers. It’s not just the major journalistic institutions, it’s the most powerful players of the Wurlitzer. They’re low quality people.
And most of the Sunday bobbleheads I saw failed to take the attack on Judge Curiel seriously. In fact, a couple of them (cough Chuckie Todd cough) compared Trump’s reaction to bad campaign news favorably to Hillary’s equivocations. He just bulldozes through and attacks his “enemies”, they said in admiration, while Clinton dodges and feints carefully on the edge of troubles. Bad week for Clinton in comparison, they said.
I’m going to return to stopping watching those shows for a while. It’s bad for my mental health, and I learn nothing other than how much they are going to sandbag Clinton so they can get their “entertaining” “horse race”. These people are the scourge of the public, not its protectors and informers. It’s not just the major journalistic institutions, it’s the most powerful players of the Wurlitzer. They’re low quality people.
Somewhere, Sinclair Lewis is displaying a knowing smile.
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@JoyAnnReid
Pat Buchanan says losing the white male heroic narrative is literally causing death, and only Trump can save them:
Astonishing he’d make a claim so easily (and subsequently almost instantaneously) refuted.
Or, well, would be astonishing from any sane, normal person, but Trump’s been proving all along that the facts that comprise Reality just don’t matter to him.
The appalling thing is that such a large minority seems to agree with him on this point (if recent polling is taken at face value).