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Jonathan Turley joined America’s Newsroom to break down two connected fights over accountability and free speech: President Trump’s bold move to declare autopen-signed Biden documents “terminated,” and the New Jersey pro-life center’s fight over a sweeping donor subpoena. Turley warned this is an administration unafraid to “start a fight” over what it sees as institutional abuses, and he urged Americans to pay attention to the constitutional stakes involved.
President Trump used his platform to announce that documents purportedly signed by autopen during the Biden years — from executive orders to pardons — would no longer be recognized by his administration, a move that sent the establishment press into predictable outrage. Whether you cheer him or not, Trump’s action forces the country to confront a simple fact: if a president’s authority can be automated away in secret, the public loses the ability to demand real accountability.
Critics and many legal scholars immediately scoffed at the notion that an autopen by itself voids executive actions, citing long-standing legal precedent that presidential instruments don’t require a handwritten signature to be valid. That debate shouldn’t let Democrats off the hook: the autopen question isn’t just about ink — it’s about whether Americans were served by a transparent, functioning executive or by a shadow government hiding behind machinery.
Turley’s point on air was measured but damning — this administration is trying to provoke a legal and political reckoning, and the American people deserve one. Conservatives should welcome scrutiny; we don’t want a future where power is trafficked through aides and machines while the public is kept in the dark. It’s patriotic, not petty, to insist that signatures represent responsibility and not a cover for convenient deniability.
At the same time the Supreme Court heard a related freedom fight: First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is pushing back against New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s subpoena demanding donor names and internal records. The high court’s questioning showed unease with a state wielding investigatory power to force disclosure that could chill speech and deter donations to faith-based charities doing life-affirming work.
This is where the two stories meet — whether it’s a president hiding behind an autopen or a state attorney general turning investigative power into political intimidation, the lesson is the same: liberty dies by attrition if citizens don’t stand up. The legal skirmish over ripeness and federal review in the First Choice case underscores that the courts must remain a bulwark against overreach, not a rubber stamp for partisan fishing expeditions.
Hardworking Americans should see these fights for what they are: a test of whether our institutions protect citizens or shield officials. If conservatives don’t demand transparency and push back against government tactics that chill dissent — be they autopens or subpoenas — we won’t have victories to celebrate in elections or in the courts. It’s time to defend the Constitution with vigor, and to insist that accountability is not optional for those who wield public power.
