NEW YORK: Presumptive Republican candidate for US presidential election Donald Trump said on Sunday a Muslim judge would treat him unfairly if the latter were to preside over his cases.

When asked during the Face the Nation show of CBS if he believed a Muslim judge would treat him unfairly because of his controversial proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the US, Mr Trump replied: “It’s possible, yes. Yeah. That would be possible, absolutely.”

“Isn’t there sort of a tradition though in America that we don’t judge people by who their parents were and where they came from?” host John Dickerson asked.

“I’m not talking about tradition,” Mr Trump replied. “I’m talking about common sense, okay? He’s somebody, he’s proud of his heritage. And I think that’s great that he’s proud of his heritage.”

The New York businessman also stood by comments he made against US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over a Trump University lawsuit, saying that Curiel’s Mexican heritage prevented him from acting fairly on the bench.

“He is a member of a club or society, very strongly pro-Mexican, which is all fine,” he said. “But I say he’s got bias. I want to build a wall. I’m going to build a wall. I’m doing very well with the Latinos, with the Hispanics, with the Mexicans. I’m doing very well with them in my opinion.”

When asked whether he would instruct his lawyers to ask that Judge Curiel be thrown out of the case, Mr Trump said: “Well, I may do that now. We’re finding things out now that we didn’t know before.”

“Because of his Mexican heritage, though?” Mr Dickerson pressed.

“No, but because of other things,” Mr Trump said. “I mean because of other things.”

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2016