Anti-Trump protests cap a week of free speech stress tests across America

Virtually every flashpoint in American politics right now involves the First Amendment right to free speech and free expression. Some of this tension is due to President Donald Trump, who vowed in his inaugural address to “bring back free speech to America,” but who keeps showing that he wants some forms of speech to carry a great cost. From arrests of Palestinian activists to blitzes against universities to threats against demonstrators in Washington, DC, the Trump administration’s actions and words have alarmed free speech organizations — and have fueled Saturday’s “No Kings” protests across the country. “Trump’s retaliation campaign against free speech has entered a new and even more dangerous phase,” Nora Benavidez, a civil rights and free speech attorney at the group Free Press, told CNN Friday. International human rights groups have taken notice. Amnesty International denounced Trump’s recent claim that any protests during Saturday’s Army parade would be met with “very big force.” “Now is a good moment to remind President Trump that protesting is a human right and that his administration is obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly – not suppress them,” the group said in a statement. Between the military parade in DC and the anti-Trump demonstrations expected in all 50 states, Saturday is shaping up to be a huge show of — and test for — free speech rights. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, a progressive nonprofit, said Friday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that “we want to see people exercising their First Amendment rights, because when those rights are under threat, if you don’t stand up in defense of them, you don’t have those rights.” Free speech on trial First Amendment freedoms — and concerns about whether they’re being upheld — are a through-line of numerous legal battles and administration maneuvers. The editorial board of The Everett Herald in Washington state put it this way on Thursday: “The First Amendment has been getting a workout in recent days. Even amid abuses of those rights, that’s for the good.” It’s also keeping advocacy groups very busy. Benavidez said the examples of Trump “targeting perceived enemies and dissenting voices” with investigations and public intimidation are almost too extensive to list. “This is all an escalation of the Trump administration’s scheme to silence critics and weaken any institutional and societal checks against his abuse of power — all the while promoting a version of free speech that rewards capitulation and penalizes anything less,” she said. Trump officials and allies have repeatedly cited security risks while curtailing free speech rights, as in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate at the center of a high-profile deportation fight over his pro-Palestinian views. Security concerns were also invoked when Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference on Thursday. Rep. Nancy Pelosi condemned the handcuffing of Padilla by calling it “an assault on freedom of speech in our country.” Press groups have also warned about potential First Amendment violations during the anti-ICE protests in L.A. and other cities. On Friday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 60 media outlets, including CNN, sent a letter to federal, state, and local officials asking them to ensure that authorities uphold the rights of journalists to report on law enforcement activity without reprisal. Favored vs. disfavored speech These days, free versus restricted speech is not the relevant dividing line. Rather, it’s favored versus disfavored speech — and Trump is very explicit about which is which. During his falling-out with Elon Musk, Trump said Musk would face “very serious consequences” if he funded Democratic challengers to Republican candidates, a comment that many interpreted as a threat. In a recent interview with the New York Post, Trump boasted about “getting rid of woke in our schools, our military, and just in our society,” claiming, “You’re not seeing woke anymore. It almost became illegal.” His recent assertion that masks are not allowed at protests was also seen, by civil liberties groups, as an infringement on the right to free expression. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s moves against media outlets like The Associated Press, Voice of America, NPR and PBS have spawned First Amendment lawsuits in recent weeks. Several of the targeted outlets cited Trump’s claims about bias and “fake news” to argue that the president committed viewpoint discrimination. Critics say various other actions — like deleting government websites and stripping books from shelves — have also been against the spirit, even when not against the letter, of the First Amendment. California Governor Gavin Newsom raised the subject in his address to the state on Tuesday night. Trump is “delegitimizing news organizations and he’s assaulting the First Amendment,” Newsom said. He concluded by telling residents, “if you exercise your First Amendment rights, please, please do it peacefully.”