Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking To Expand Use Of Death Penalty
HuffPost
The newly inaugurated president's directive fulfills a key part of Project 2025's right-wing mandate for his administration.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday night calling for the dramatic expansion of the use of the federal death penalty.
The directive calls on the attorney general to pursue the federal death penalty “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” particularly in cases involving the killing of law enforcement officers and capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”
Trump frequently blames immigrants for violent crime in the U.S., despite studies showing that they are not more likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes. During campaign rallies, Trump described migrants as “animals” who were “poisoning the blood of our country” ― dehumanizing language that is reminiscent of Nazi rhetoric.
The executive order also calls for the “Overruling of Supreme Court Precedents That Hinder Capital Punishment,” likely a reference to Supreme Court rulings in 1977 and 2008 that held that carrying out the death penalty for rape would violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint for Trump’s second term, called for using the death penalty in cases involving violence toward or sexual abuse of children. In a footnote, the author wrote that this would require the Supreme Court to overrule itself, “but the [Justice] department should place a priority on doing so.”
During the 2008 case, which involved the rape of a child, several groups for survivors of sexual assault urged against the death penalty, arguing it would interfere with young victims’ healing process. The case ended in a 5-4 decision; three of the four justices who voted to allow the death penalty as punishment for child sexual assault are still on the Supreme Court, as well as three additional conservative justices. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill allowing the death penalty in state child rape convictions.
The tradition of presidents being sworn into office with a Bible dates back to George Washington.
Despite Trump's longstanding pet peeve about low water pressure, consumer watchdogs and product reviews say new appliances work well.
Last time, quitting the Paris Agreement was largely symbolic. Not this time.
President Joe Biden said his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt him."
"Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives," her family said in a post on social media.
Rep. Glenn Grothman was among the lawmakers who voted in favor of a bill requiring TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership.
President Joe Biden has pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Donald Trump's campaign team attempted to troll the outgoing president on social media.
Donald Trump's niece said she takes "comfort in the knowledge" of one thing.
The New York Times journalist also predicted what's to come from the anti-immigration hardliner during Donald Trump's second term.
Pope Francis put the incoming administration on blast over an expected mass deportation program.
“It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek officials who share President Trump’s vision," a spokesman for the Trump transition told The Washington Post.
Trump’s slate of orders will touch on many of his broad campaign promises, including vast changes to the border and environmental policy.
“The American people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history,” Trump said.
Ahead of his inauguration speech tomorrow, the son of the late civil rights leader said the president-elect needs to "set the tone."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for expedited aid with no “strings attached” multiple times.
"There's no legal basis for any kind of 'extension'" to keep the popular social media app running, warned GOP Sens. Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts on Sunday.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said of Garvey: “He was the first man, on a mass scale and level" to give millions of Black people "a sense of dignity and destiny.”