The First Amendment Basics
Not a lot of people are aware that. the first amendment is made up of 6 freedoms or 6 negative rights. A negative right is a right that simply means something that the government cannot do to you. The clauses are freedom from religion, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, the freedom to peaceably assemble, and the freedom to petition the government.
First Amendment | U.S. Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu)
The First Amendment & Current News
The first thing one needs to understand is that constitutional claims like something "violates the first amendment", according to the State Action Doctrine, "without government involvement, no constitution claim can be made because only the government can violate your constitutional rights; therefore, the first amendment doesn't reach private actors."
State Action Doctrine Archives - FIRE (thefire.org)
A big thing recently in the news was the suspension of the 45th President of the United States', Donald Trump's, Twitter account. Many people were quick to break the news and claim that it was a First Amendment violation, but according to the State Action Doctrine, it isn't. The 45th President lost a way to contact millions of people and it isn't a First Amendment violation. Twitter is a private corporation and therefore, does not fall under the First Amendment. I, like many others, was excited that Trump could no longer tweet, what I felt were, unneeded tweets to the public, but on further thought and exploration, it doesn't matter what I think of his tweets, he should be allowed a platform to speak. If Twitter was run by the government, this situation would not have happened because it would have been extremely illegal. My question is what has these companies done to deserve more protection from the government than its own President? (Yes, the answer is money and power, but it shouldn't be.)
No comments:
Post a Comment