Joe Arpaio…

Donald Trump has truly done it this time. His late-night pardon of convicted former sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday (during the height of Hurricane Harvey) has not only pissed off Latinos and even fellow Republicans (who fear the move will cost them dearly in the next election), but has some in Washington whispering I-M-P-E-A-C-H-M-E-N-T!

Politics
In case you’re unaware, Joe Arpaio was the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona from 1993 through 2016. Calling himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio came under fire for his blatant use of racial profiling against Latinos in what he considered to be a crack down against illegal immigration. The sheriff created a controversial tent city in the 100+ degree outdoor heat of the Arizona desert, where he imprisoned and forced hard labor on those Latinos he rounded up and deemed as criminals.

The Phoenix New Times covered Arpaio for more than 20 years.  Here’s what they had to say about him:

–  Arpaio ran a jail that he described as a “concentration camp.”

–  Prisoners died inside his jail at an alarming rate, often without explanation.

–  One of his jailers nearly broke the neck of a paraplegic man who had the temerity to ask for a catheter.

–   As a publicity stunt, Arpaio once marched Latino prisoners into a segregated area with electric fencing.

–  Prisoners literally baked to death in Arpaio’s cells. In one case and in a cell so hot, a freshly expired corpse was measured at 109 degrees.  An investigator later wrote that the cramped cell had virtually no air circulation. The circulation had been cut off by a detention officer because a cellmate said something the officer didn’t like

–  Arpaio ran an ongoing “mugshot of the day” contest on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website.

–  Arpaio arrested New Times reporters for covering him. They later won a $3.75 million settlement against him.

–  Under Arpaio, the MCSO failed to investigate hundreds of sex abuse cases, many of which involved children.  However,  he somehow found time and money to send a deputy to Hawaii to look for Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

–  Arpaio once staged an assassination attempt against himself.

–  After a federal judge confirmed that Arpaio had been racially profiling Latinos, he hired a private investigator to dig up details on the judge and his wife.

–  Once convicted, Arpaio attempted to destroy some of the hard drives containing damning materials that were supposed to be turned over to the court.

–  By 2015, Arpaio’s fondness for racial profiling cost his county more than $44 million.

–  Arpaio paid millions to settle lawsuits where deputies stood by while an inmate was brutally beaten.

–  Arpaio bragged of his “Sheriff’s Posse,” which included a member who was arrested on child pornography charges

Arpaio was accused of abuse of power, misuse of funds, improper clearance of cases, unlawful enforcement of immigration laws, and more. However, when a federal court ruled in 2010 that his jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates and ordered them fixed or closed, Arpaio defied the order, saying his jails were meant as places for punishment and that the inhabitants were all criminals, despite the fact that most inmates had not been convicted of any crime and were awaiting trial.

On July 31, 2017, Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt of court and was about to be sentenced to prison — until “Super Donald” stepped in last Friday and saved the day. Trump’s decision to pardon Arpaio was not based on any legal or ethical precedent, but was merely a political favor for an old racial profiling friend in what is now being called an abuse of power.

Over the weekend, a variety of legal scholars argued that Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio is constitutionally invalid, is expected to be legally challenged in court, and falls within the realm of an impeachable offense. According to Martin Redish, Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northwestern University, the pardon offends the Due Process Clause because the only effective redress for those whose rights were violated by then–Sheriff Arpaio when he defied the court’s injunction is a contempt sanction. The professor added that voiding the sanction with a pardon not only neuters the judicial power to enforce constitutional rights, but also deprives Arpaio’s victims of relief.

In a New York Times article, other legal scholars agreed that Trump could be in trouble here, citing that his pardon threatens to undercut one of the indispensable, foundational norms of American constitutional order: the rule of law.

“I have underestimated Trump. He knows what is coming, including a variety of criminal charges and other impeachable offenses. He is not just arousing his base to anger but to arms, some of them. There is no other way to explain the transgender ban, the Arpaio pardon, his Charlottesville remarks…” – Constitutional Lawyer

Politics
Latinos, who happen to be the largest (and growing) voting block in the US, are understandably livid. They believed that the conviction of Joe Arpaio was proper based on the years of racial profiling they endured during his tenure. However, since Donald Trump completely stepped all over the law by undoing the conviction, they have already begun to mobilize to make him pay — and that has the Republican Party shaking in their boots.

The Arpaio pardon greatly pleased Trump’s base and those die-hard supporters who attended his rally in Arizona last Thursday, but it comes at a steep cost by angering nearly everyone else. Trump’s base is nowhere near enough of a voting power to get him or congressional Republicans reelected. So, with Latinos already beginning to abandon Trump and the GOP over the pardon, Democrats are welcoming them with open arms.

Will the pardon of Joe Arpaio prove to be worth it for Donald Trump? Will it cost him and his fellow Republicans dearly among the electorate? Could the pardon be rescinded and become the tool to impeach Trump?

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