Only Trump speech matters: Kirsten Powers

[GMDino]

(Opinion piece)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/08/16/free-speech-trump-first-amendment-black-lives-matter-fox-news-kirsten-powers/88827274/

Quote:Donald Trump has a curious understanding of what freedom of speech means. His most recent head-scratcher involves a claim that writing unflattering newspaper stories about him is not protected speech.

Following a lengthy Sunday New York Times piece detailing dysfunction in Trumpland, The Donald tweeted, “It is not ‘freedom of the press’ when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!”

Ken White, a First Amendment lawyer, told me: “Trump's complaint is misleading…Political arguments, characterizations, opinions based on disclosed facts, and interpretations can't be ‘false’ for First Amendment purposes.”

Trump may not like the fact that 20-plus anonymous sources provided the New York Times with an unflattering portrait of his campaign, but that doesn’t make it “false.”  Of course, Trump had no problem with news outlets running with his made-up claimin 2011 that Barack Obama “doesn't have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim.”

Meanwhile, Trump believes official action should be taken against media when they anger him. In September, National Review editor Rich Lowry quipped that Carly Fiorina “cut [Trump’s] balls off with the precision of a surgeon” at the CNN debate. Trump tweeted furiously that Lowry “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!” Of journalist Michelle Fields, who allegedly touched Trump’s arm while asking questions, he tweeted, “Why is she allowed to grab me and shout questions? Can I press charges?”

Trump loves free speech only when he or his supporters are speaking. When Trump postponed a March campaign event due to throngs of protestors he told Sean Hannity, “I think this not a good group  —  really spiteful of First Amendment rights.” He also complained to Greta Van Susteren that his First Amendment rights had been violated.
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USA TODAY

Protesters can’t violate First Amendment rights. Only the government can do that. Moreover, whether a group is “good” or “bad” is irrelevant in determining whether a constitutional violation has occurred.

But don’t tell Donald Trump that. He seems to be keeping a “naughty or nice” list. Last week he told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he was going to work to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits non-profit charitable organizations from engaging in political activity. Why? “Free speech is being taken away from people that are great people,” Trump told an interviewer. “From people that are saying good things, not bad things.”

The “great people” saying “good things” in this case are Trump supporting conservative Christian pastors who want to be able to take tax-deductible donations and also influence elections. Trump has portrayed the Johnson amendment as an attack on religious institutions, when it actually applies to all non-profit charitable organizations.

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People saying “bad things” can expect different treatment from a President Trump. We know he’s promised to [url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866]“open up” libel laws so he can punish the “dishonest media.”

He also pledged in an interview with Bill O’Reilly to have his Attorney General investigate Black Lives Matter, should he become president.  Why? “Because [they are doing] really bad stuff and it's happened more than once,” he told O’Reilly.  In an interview earlier this month, Trump told me he was referring to claims that a handful of BLM protesters chanted, “Dead cops now.” This allegation has been debunked.

But even if it were true, it would be unusual for a president to take official action regarding a single chant — no matter how noxious — at a single event in the United States. Bad speech is actually protected, unless, says Ken White, it is “directed at causing and likely to cause imminent lawless action.” This is a high bar, and not one the claims in this instance would likely meet. Nonetheless, Trump reiterated to me that he would have his AG investigate an activist group he dislikes.

This is what free speech would look like in Trump’s America.

Kirsten Powers, author of The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech, writes often for USA TODAY.