By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
It is widely known that freedom of speech has its limitations, even though they aren’t spelled out directly in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The most commonly used example is how “One cannot yell ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater.”
With that is this brief rebuke of Donald Trump’s legal team defense of his action on the Sixth of January. The Trump team suggests that the ex-president was merely exercising his constitutional guarantee of free speech when he told the riotous mob of terrorists to march on Capitol Hill and “take back our country.”
They heard Trump. They acted on what they heard. They stormed the Capitol Building looking for Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders who were gathered to continue the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Several of the rioters told media folks covering the event that they were acting specifically on the demand that Trump made of them! It is recorded! For posterity!
Five people died in the melee! Five lives were sacrificed because, in minds of the lawyers defending Trump in his second impeachment trial, he was speaking freely.
What a crock of fecal matter!
Donald Trump incited the riot. He is guilty as hell of “incitement of insurrection.” The free speech clause in the First Amendment does not apply to what he did on that terrible day.
I am acutely aware that none of this argument is going to change any senators’ minds if they are inclined to acquit Trump on charges that he sought to destroy our democratic form of government. It’s just that the free speech argument is laughable on its face.
Yelling fire in a crowded theater argument has been used and lost several times in higher courts. That was an analogy that Justice Holmes used for an espionage case. It’s not a legal stand. There are numerous other circumstances that must follow. The argument doesn’t fit here.
Should he have spoken, NO. Was what he said illegal, NO. Even national security has stated they found plans of the event prior on Facebook and other social sites.