Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell said during a Wednesday Fox News appearance that due to a lack of “direct harm,” reparations for slavery would be “unconstitutional.”
Fox News host Harris Faulkner played a clip of Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California discussing her May 2023 proposal for a “United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation” in August prior to the Democratic National Convention. Terrell said that reparations would be based on “skin color” and that such a measure would run against the Constitution. (RELATED: Segment Comes Unglued After Leo Terrell Rips Dem For Failing To Explain Harris’ Policy Flip-Flops)
“I want to be clear as possible with 35 years of practicing law. Federal reparations is impossible, unconstitutional. Why? There’s no causation,” Terrell told Faulkner. “You can’t give out taxpayer federal government money based on skin color. No American today is responsible for the sins of slavery. No American today can show harm, direct harm, from the sins of slavery.”
WATCH:
‘No American Today Is Responsible’: Leo Terrell Explains To Harris Faulkner Why Reparations For Slavery Are ‘Impossible’ pic.twitter.com/mPXQJSjN9D
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 4, 2024
“You will see Kamala Harris talk about reparations to black audiences,” Terrell continued. “She is in New Hampshire today, Harris. She won’t talk about reparations. She won’t talk about reparations and battleground states because it divides the country, and it is unconstitutional and racist.”
Harris voiced support for reparations during her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election.
“We have to be honest that people in this country do not start from the same place or have access to the same opportunities,” Harris told The New York Times in February 2019. “I’m serious about taking an approach that would change policies and structures and make real investments in black communities.”
Terrell reminded Faulkner that when seeking reparations, one question had to be answered, even in a case like the Great Depression, which Faulkner brought up as a hypothetical. (RELATED: ‘They Want To Buy A House’: Leo Terrell Says Young Black Americans ‘Rejecting The Democratic Kool-Aid’)
“You have to have a legal claim. Who is the boogeyman? Who is directly responsible?” Terrell said. “Show me the receipts of evidence that you can establish that, because of slavery, because of the depression, you were directly harmed.”
“We have black millionaires, black movie stars, black actors — it makes no sense, Harris,” Terrell added.
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