John White: Trump’s example

I read the Aug. 6 Point of View “Berger, Moore reckless with comments on voter ID court ruling” by attorney J. Dickson Phillips III, in which he castigated N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore and N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger for stating that the three judges who ruled against them were “politically motivated” and out “to steal the election.”

Phillips concluded: “When leading public officials who are lawyers recklessly tell our citizens that judges have ruled to suit the judges’ politics, they tell the public we do not have an independent judiciary. ‘Politics as usual’ does not justify the harm this attack causes.”

Sen. Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, noted that Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. “For Mr. Trump to insist that Judge Curiel would be biased because of his ethnicity demonstrated a profound lack of respect not only for the judge but also for our constitutional separation of powers, the very foundation of our form of government.”

So Moore and Berger are only following the example set by Donald Trump. Moore and Berger are truly Trump followers.

This story was originally published August 9, 2016 at 5:30 PM with the headline "John White: Trump’s example."