ACLU to Trump: Supreme Court has ruled you can’t execute drug traffickers

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday ripped President Trump’s plan to impose the death penalty on drug dealers, saying the Supreme Court has ruled the U.S. cannot execute someone who hasn’t committed murder.

“The opioid crisis is a serious problem that requires a serious solution,” ACLU deputy director Jesselyn McCurdy said in a statement Monday adding that Trump’s “draconian law enforcement” is unconstitutional.

“Drug trafficking is not an offense for which someone can receive the death penalty. The Supreme Court has repeatedly and consistently rejected the use of the death penalty in cases where there has been no murder by the convicted individual,” McCurdy said. 

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Trump’s push to implement the death penalty was released on Monday as part of his plan to combat the nationwide opioid epidemic.

He also vowed to build a Mexican border wall to keep drugs out of the country and accused sanctuary cities of shielding dangerous criminals and releasing “illegal immigrants, drug dealers, traffickers [and] gang members back into our communities.”

Trump’s policies are similar to the war on drugs that “set back American drug policy decades, and codified harm to black and brown people,” the ACLU argued.

Without addressing racial disparities, the ACLU said Trump’s White House will “almost certainly fail to solve the actual crisis facing the country.”