Last Thursday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. heard Claims regarding the dropping of charges against Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case. President Trump has argued that even if his statements were false, he was making “political speech” that is protected by the First Amendment.trump is already I lost this argument once.who took the case to District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a lawsuit against him in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, will likely lose again.
Although legally weak, President Trump’s First Amendment argument is notable for another reason. In other words, President Trump raised this argument in connection with his new claim of total immunity for crimes committed while in office, which the Supreme Court has agreed to allow.
The First Amendment protects: widely misunderstood In the United States. The First Amendment protects free speech, but that doesn’t mean “anything goes.” Speech can be a crime, and the government can be prosecuted if it is.As Attorney General Bill Barr said, “Face the nation.” last august“The crime of conspiracy is established when an agreement is made and the first step is taken.” Although the agreement to form a conspiracy involves speech, Mr. Barr accordingly concluded: [the Trump indictment] It violates the First Amendment. ”
Trump is repeating the same thing. defamation E. Jean Carroll’s the jury found He sexually abused and engaged in speech. He is appealing a judgment worth $92 million against him for defaming her.It is also illegal to train terrorists“talk” through possessing images of child sexual abuse, or threaten harm the president, even if such threats convey deep-rooted political views.
Trump has repeatedly defended his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. speech Ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, he appealed to his supporters to “fight like hell.”public interest” about the “integrity of the 2020 election,” he claimed. the lawyer called “The height of political speech.” President Trump used a similar public interest argument in arguing for broad impunity for the president before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that “statements of public interest are categorically “This is a serious problem,” he said. Because it is an official function of the president, it is not subject to prosecution. Speech that is part of a criminal act cannot magically erase the crime.
But the phrase “of public interest” was never about presidential impunity. (And, at least for now, presidential immunity exists nowhere in the law.) Instead, it is based on Supreme Court precedent regarding speech by public officials. The court is held for a long time “The state has an interest as an employer in regulating the speech of its employees, which is very different from the interest it has in regulating the speech of its citizens generally.” In fact, it is possible to restrict the speech of public servants even more than it is possible to restrict the speech of private citizens. Trump was president at the time when he engaged in lies about the 2020 election, leading to multiple criminal charges. President Trump was a public servant.
That said, the Supreme Court also held that the government’s ability to restrict employee speech is not unlimited. When a public official speaks about a matter of public concern and is fired for doing so, the court weighs the employee’s interests and states that “as a citizen, as an employer, when commenting on matters of public concern and the national interest, , which aims to promote efficiency in the public services we deliver through our employees.”
in Connick vs. Myers Thus, the Supreme Court held that an assistant district attorney who was fired for insubordination after circulating an employee morale survey and who was also upset about the transfer was not protected by the First Amendment. handed down a judgment. Government officials are subject to intrusive surveillance by law enforcement authorities in the name of the First Amendment because they are fairly deemed to be related to political, social, or other matters of community interest. should enjoy wide discretion in managing their duties. ”
Of course, it is impossible to compare a president with unparalleled power in government, who can only be removed from office by impeachment or at the ballot box, to a disgruntled former employee. The underlying concern in these cases is that the government will “suppress the right of civil servants to participate in public service” by, for example, eliciting an oath of allegiance or denying employment based on membership in a competing political party. This is in response to attempts to do so. That concern hardly applies to the president.
The government can restrict the speech of its employees when it is in the public interest. That’s why January 6th and the Georgia case must go to trial. As the Supreme Court explained in Connick, as far back as 1882, the Supreme Court “pointed to the government’s legitimate purpose of ‘propaganda.'”[ing] To maintain efficiency and integrity in the performance of official duties and appropriate discipline in official duties. ”
inside words Bill Barr said that by January 6, 2021, “states had already made formal and authoritative decisions about who won in those states and sent their votes to Congress for certification.” , stated that “the claims are essentially governmental.” It’s that at that point the president conspired and hatched a plan, a plan that involved a lot of deception, and the purpose of that was to erase those votes and invalidate those legal votes. ”
If Mr. Trump had been a full-time employee, such “remarks” could have been legitimate grounds for termination. As president, he cannot hide behind the First Amendment. 1,200 followers Some people may already have been charged with taking part in what his Republican allies call “peaceful protests.” The Supreme Court should not fabricate the president’s impunity under the guise of that “speech.”
Kimberly Wehr is the author of How to Read the Constitution and Why. Her upcoming book, Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works – and Why, will be published in September.follow her @kimwehle.
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