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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, June 09, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 330 ~ 45 of 59
is an unsettled legal question and the practice could be challenged, Adams said.
But activists are primarily concerned with waiting to see whether a judge in California will issue a nation- wide injunction to stop immigration authorities from separating parents from their young children, which
Adams described as a much more pressing and egregious issue.
On Wednesday, the judge said that if the policy was being carried out as described, it is “brutal, offensive,
and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency.”
Washington state officials have also expressed alarm. Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Fergu-
son issued a letter Thursday seeking more information from the federal government after learning ICE had transferred dozens of mothers who had been separated from their children to the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.
“The Trump Administration’s new family separation policy is inflicting intentional, gratuitous, and perma- nent trauma on young children who have done nothing wrong and on parents who often have valid claims for refugee or asylum status,” they wrote.
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Associated Press reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed.
Trump considers pardon for Ali, wants athletes’ advice By JILL COLVIN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reveling in his pardon powers, President Donald Trump said Friday he’s thinking “very seriously” about pardoning former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, whose conviction was already overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971.
It’s one of “thousands” of cases the president’s team is reviewing, he told reporters as he left the White House en route to a world leaders’ summit in Canada. And Trump said he’s thinking about soliciting recom- mendations about other cases to consider from pro football players and other athletes who have protested racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem — a tactic Trump has fiercely denounced.
Trump said that, “instead of talk,” he’s “going to ask all of those people to recommend to me — because that’s what they’re protesting — people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system.”
“I’m going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated, friends of theirs or people that they know about and I’m going to take a look at those applications,” he said.
Trump has been on a clemency kick of late, using his near-limitless power to pardon a growing list that includes a former White House aide, a conservative commentator and a former sheriff convicted of violat- ing a judge’s orders who campaigned with Trump in 2016.
Earlier this week, he commuted the life sentence of a woman whose cause was championed by reality television star Kim Kardashian West. Last month he granted a posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. Actor Sylvester Stallone alerted him to that case.
Trump told reporters Friday his team is now “looking at literally thousands” of people who have come to their attention because they’ve been treated unfairly or their sentences are too long.
“We have 3,000 names. We’re looking at them,” Trump said, calling the power to pardon “a beautiful thing.”
Among them is Ali, who died in 2016.
Born Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after converting to Islam in the 1960s. He refused to serve in the Vietnam War because of his religious beliefs, declaring himself a conscientious objector. He was stripped of his heavyweight crown in 1967, but his legal fight ended in 1971 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor and overturned his conviction. He regained the boxing title in 1974.
“I’m thinking about somebody that you all know very well. And he went through a lot. And he wasn’t very popular then,” Trump said. “He certainly, his memory is very popular now.”
Ron Tweel, Ali’s lawyer, pointed out that Ali has no criminal record.
“We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary,” he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about why the president feels one is needed.