Legal experts stunned by Trump’s comments on Muslims

Leading US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has drawn strong criticism from his White House rivals and disbelief from legal experts for saying he would require American Muslims to register in a database in response to last week’s Paris terrorist attacks.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders called Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric “shocking” and outrageous.”

“This is shocking rhetoric. It should be denounced by all seeking to lead this country,” Clinton tweeted on Saturday.

"What an outrageous and bigoted statement. @realDonaldTrump should be ashamed of himself," Sanders tweeted.

At a rally in Tennessee on Friday, Clinton said, "Mr. Trump has attacked Mexican immigrants, he's attacked women and now he's attacking Muslim Americans. At some point you have to ask yourself, is that the kind of country we are?"

On Thursday, Trump said he would be open to having a “Muslim database” in America for security reasons, two days after he said that the US would have "absolutely no choice" but to close down some mosques.

In an interview on Fox News Channel on Friday evening, he tried to back away from his comments and clarify his position.

Nonetheless, the Republican presidential candidates' unified criticism of Trump has been striking.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush called the prospect of a registry "abhorrent." Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the idea was "unnecessary" and not something Americans would support.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has largely avoided criticizing Trump throughout the presidential election campaign, said, "I'm not a fan of government registries of American citizens."

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said creating a national registry based on religion and closing mosques "will do nothing to keep us safer.”

Ohio Governor John Kasich said requiring people to register with the government because of their religion "strikes against all that we have believed in our nation's history."

Civil liberties experts said a database for Muslims would be unconstitutional on several counts.

Ilya Shapiro from the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, said Trump’s idea violates basic privacy and liberty rights.

Marci Hamilton, a legal expert on religious liberty at Yeshiva University in New York City, said requiring Muslims to register appears to be a clear violation of the US Constitution's protection of religious freedom.

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