Sign the petition: Arpaio pardon means impeachment

{NAME} -- "Donald Trump is a racist, and he just pardoned another racist." With those words, Arizona Congressmember Ruben Gallego accurately summed up the shocking and disturbing pardon Trump gave late last night to the awful white supremacist Joe Arpaio. Arpaio has spent decades terrorizing Latino residents of the Phoenix area, using his power as Sheriff to harass, racially profile, and abuse people of color. A court finally ordered him to stop the persecution. He defied the court and kept doing it anyway. And as a result, he was convicted of contempt and was awaiting sentencing. But Trump's pardon means Arpaio walks free. It wasn't just Arpaio himself that Trump pardoned. Trump gave his blessing to using police power to enforce white supremacy and erode basic constitutional rights. It was one of the most racist acts of his presidency. It is also another impeachable offense. As Harvard law professor Noah Feldman wrote earlier this week in anticipation of a possible pardon for Arpaio, there is only one remedy in the constitution for this: impeachment. [Sign the petition: It's time for Congress to impeach Donald Trump.]( Arizona voters fired Joe Arpaio last fall. It was a stunning win for human rights and progressive values. But it was equally important that Arpaio face the legal consequences of his violent, criminal, and unconstitutional actions. Trump's actions mean others around the country will continue to feel emboldened to use police power to oppress people of color. Here's what Feldman wrote in Bloomberg View this week about why this pardon constitutes an impeachable offense: "When a sheriff ignores the courts, he becomes a law unto himself. The courts' only available recourse is to sanction the sheriff. If the president blocks the courts from making the sheriff follow the law, then the president is breaking the basic structure of the legal order. From this analysis it follows directly that pardoning Arpaio would be a wrongful act under the Constitution. There would be no immediate constitutional crisis because, legally speaking, Trump has the power to issue the pardon. But the pardon would trigger a different sort of crisis: a crisis in enforcement of the rule of law. The Constitution isn't perfect. It offers only one remedy for a president who abuses the pardon power to break the system itself. That remedy is impeachment. James Madison noted at the Virginia ratifying convention that abuse of the pardon power could be grounds for impeachment. He was correct then -- and it's still true now." Congressmember Gallego said on MSNBC last night that Trump wants to "erode the rule of law so he can hurt other people." That's why DFA believes impeachment is so important: Trump won't stop with a pardon of Arpaio. He's already reportedly planning to end the DACA program and send police after nearly a million children of immigrants. Trump has to go. [Sign the petition: It's time for Congress to impeach Donald Trump.]( Thank you for fighting back against Trump and the racist violence he continues to promote. - Robert Robert Cruickshank, Senior Campaign Manager Democracy for America [DONATE]( Paid for by Democracy for America, and not authorized by any candidate. Contributions to Democracy for America are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. This message was sent to {EMAIL}. Click here to [unsubscribe]( from further communications.