A federal judge threatened to kick Donald Trump out of court Wednesday after the former president made repeated comments within earshot of the jury hearing a civil defamation trial against him.
Trump muttered that the case is a “witch hunt,” among other similar comments, according to a lawyer for the writer E. Jean Carroll, who is suing Trump over derogatory comments he made about her while he was president.
The episode prompted a stern rebuke from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who repeatedly tussled with Trump and his lawyers during a testy courtroom session Wednesday morning.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me,” the judge said.
Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are universal, fundamental and inalienable (they cannot be repealed by human laws, though one can forfeit their enjoyment through one’s actions, such as by violating someone else’s rights).
Myself, I’m more with Jeremy Bentham and George Carlin in this:
Rights don’t exist, there is no such thing as a natural or inalienable right. Rights are flimsy fantasies, they are nothing but societal agreements, contracts to treat with each other on a common set of core-values. Which makes it all the more important that we defend these rights and enforce those social contracts.
And with those rights come the duties to respect those of others, like the right of the litigant to not have their trial disrupted.
Edit: Marking the quote.
