Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/13/cnn-sues-trump.html
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I wondered how long this would take! I was personally predicting a defamation of character / libel suit but a lawsuit hinging on Constitutional rights is more welcome.
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What do you mean I can’t kick him out? It’s my White House, I don’t have to invite anybody I don’t want! Fine, I’ll just get on my tweeter and… who took my tweeter?
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Trump is an elected representative. He holds his office at our pleasure. If we decide to fire him because he failed to get along with the press - we can.
But this idea that a judge can force someone to quit being an elected asshole? Where did that overreach come from? When did everything elected officials do become a continuing negotiation?
I don’t want presidents who disobey the law, but I also don’t want presidents who back down. That was the biggest Obama flaw. He always yielded to Republicans even when they were clearly wrong - instead of wiping the floor with them. Obama SHOULD have thoroughly skewered the turtle man.
So am I now supposed to be upset when Trump skewers a CNN employee - not even an elected representative?
CNN can go to hell. Trump can go to hell too if he keeps making enemies. We all have bosses. No one gets a free pass.
And judges should know their place.
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No we can’t. We can hope our representatives do. But the American public cannot fire the President.
The White House, on Trump’s orders, used a doctored video to deny a reporter his 1st Amendment rights and claimed that he molested a woman in the press room, which he did not. Yes, you’re supposed to be upset about that. If you aren’t, YOU can go to hell.
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Checks. Balances.
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Certainly NOT my pleasure.
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You mean their place as a coequal branch of government specifically tasked with reining in the unconstitutional abuses of the other two branches of government? Pretty sure that’s exactly what they’re being asked to do.
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Co-equal branches. This is precisely the designed function of the courts.
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Yes, I think the word should have been ‘sufferance’.
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Sadly, the WH might prevail. The WH will say CNN can send another reporter instead of Acosta. Now if Trump throws that person out for asking perfectly legitimate questions, they have a much stronger case. The current POTUS(*) is a piece of crap. The people who continue to support him are even bigger pieces of crap and should be ashamed of themselves.
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For those interested in the pleadings:
CNN’s lawyers seem to have covered that:
That is why the D.C. Circuit has been clear that “the protection afforded newsgathering under the first amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that . . . access [to White House press facilities] not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.” Sherrill v. Knight, 569 F.2d 124, 129 (D.C. Cir. 1977). And “notice . . . of the factual bases for denial [of access to White House press facilities] with an opportunity to rebut is a minimum prerequisite for ensuring that the denial is . . . [not] based on arbitrary or less than compelling reasons.” Id. at 131.
They then spend the rest of the complaint setting out how access was denied for arbitrary and less than compelling reasons (i.e. Trump doesn’t like CNN) and that Acosta was not given notice of denial with an opportunity to rebut (i.e. the first he knew of it was seeing Sander’s statement on his phone while on the way to the White House - where his pass was promptly taken away).
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I hope the other legitimate news outlets file amicus briefs. Hang together or hand separately, as a famous American publisher once said.
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Have you been following this story at all? The whole POINT of the lawsuit is that Jim Acosta was explicitly BANNED from going to hell.
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You would seem to be somewhat short of fully informed as to our system of government here in the US, comrade.
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But wait, if Trump himself is his own biggest supporter (and he knows he is), doesn’t that make him the biggest piece of crap? The bigliest?!
More on topic: doesn’t he have, like, hundreds of lawsuits pending against him? What becomes of these lawsuits and won’t this one just fade away like all the others?
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You almost acknowledged your own false equivalency right there. So close.
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Forgot the part about unelected, so-called reporters.
