What President Biden is getting right & wrong about upholding & defending the First Amendment
Hello from suddenly steamy DC, where I'm giving the National Park Service and DC government the business for not turning on the water fountains yet. Alex Howard, with another civic text. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far, especially everyone who has taken a bet on me with a paid subscription!
Today is a signal day in American history, where “equal justice before the law” has been a broken promise for far too many Americans since 1789. Over the centuries, lawyers, judges, activists, journalists, and the public have all bent the moral arc of our legal universe towards the principle that no human is above the law. That goal has always been aspirational in a nation where inequality was written into our Constitution at our founding and codified into unjust laws that disenfranchised Americans based upon race.
We came closer to a more perfect union today when former President Trump was held in criminal contempt by a judge in New York for "willful disobedience of a court's lawful mandate" after he attacking witnesses and jurors during a criminal proceeding. He was fined $9,0000 for 9 counts, told to take down posts on Truth Social today, and warned to knock it off or he’ll face sanctions that could include jail time.
That's a welcome bookend to the Supreme Court's consideration of whether a President is, in fact, above the law should they, theoretically, order the assassination of a political rival or, more practically, conspire to defraud the United States or retain classified documents after leaving office.
A less welcome bookend is the ongoing crackdown on students protested the war in Gaza at college campuses around the United States by police officers called in by college administrations.
I took some time offline during the weekend with my daughter to think about it. I find it all quite worrisome. The disproportionate response to students in tents has now catalyzed a cycle of escalation that risks state violence, with eerie parallels to anti-war protests in 1968.
It doesn't take a huge leap to see how our basic freedoms of speech, peaceful assembly, expression, and petitioning for redress of grievances will be implicated more broadly this fall if universities continue to overreact to tents on campus greens by calling riot police in to clear them because they're afraid of criticism from Congress. (The naked hypocrisy around "cancellation" from "free speech absolutists" has rarely been more galling.)
I'm also seeing more coverage on the news about spreading protests than the war young people are risking arrest to decry, which is its own problem.
Today's denunciation of Columbia students occupying a building by President Biden strikes me as playing to authoritarian instincts too. Instead of more precisely defining the contours of civil disobedience over the decades, including sit-ins, White House spokesman Andrew Bates made the following statement:
“President Biden has stood against repugnant, Antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term 'intifada,' as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days. President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.”
The key word in this statement is "forcible," with respect to whether protestors used force or not! There's a long history of student takeovers in Hamilton Hall in Columbia. Assaulting staff to take over a building would indeed be wrong, especially if they were federal police officers defending a legislature.
Sitting in an academic building and committing an act of civil disobedience by doing so? Not so much. Students are apparently now facing expulsion as a result of their actions, which would change the context of consequences for protest at Columbia now and in the future.
In my view, it would be far better for the universities decide how they want to discipline students, and then let parents, alumni, donors, trustees, and professors decide whether administrations who invited riot police on campus who arrest students and faculty for peaceful demonstrations are fit leaders or not.
By contrast, the right note for a President of the United States to strike in an increasingly heated moment is to recognize the role of non-violent protest has played in world history, from the civil rights movement that finally brought our union closer to full democracy to India's rejection of British colonial rule. That might read something like:
"President Biden respects the right to free expression, including the long history of Americans organizing, marching, and peacefully calling on elected leaders for suffrage rights, civil rights, and reproductive rights. Students or faculty who engage in civil disobedience by refusing to leave university buildings should face civil penalties for their acts of conscience, not criminal charges and expulsion. If we are to lead the free world by the power of our example, we must not criminalize dissent, whether in times of war or peace."
No "but" needed.
By contrast, the short remarks President Biden delivered at the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend were close to pitch-perfect, to my ear.
Here's the key excerpt, with sections bolded for emphasis:
…Rushing into danger for others for others is my definition of patriotism and heroism.
And so is what all of you do when you report truth over lies. That’s why I want to close tonight with my genuine thanks to the free press.
There are some who call you the “enemy of the people.” That’s wrong, and it’s dangerous. You literally risk your lives doing your job. You do.
Covering everything from natural disasters to pandemics to wars and so much more. And some of your colleagues have given their lives, and many have suffered grievous injuries. Other reporters have lost their freedom.
Journalism is clearly not a crime. Not here, not there, not anywhere in the world.
And Putin should release Evan and Alsu immediately.
Just as we’re doing everything we can — we’re doing everything we can to bring home journalists — fellow journalists Austin and all Americans, like Paul Whelan, you know, who — wrongfully detained all around the world.
And I give you my word as a Biden, we’re not going to give up until we get them home. All of them. All of them.
On the third anniversary of January 6th, I went to Valley Forge. And I said the most urgent question of our time is whether democracy is still — is still the sacred cause of America. That is the question the American people must answer this year. And you, the free press, play a critical role in making sure the American people have the information they need to make an informed decision.
The defeated former President has made no secret of his attack on our democracy. He has said he wants to be a “dictator on day one,” and so much more.
He tells supporters he is their “revenge” and “retribution.” When in God’s name have you heard another president say something like that? And he promised a “bloodbath” when he loses again. We have to take this seriously.
Eight years ago, you could have written off it as just Trump talk. But no longer. Not after January 6th.
I’m sincerely not asking of you to take sides but asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment; move past the horserace numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensantio- — sensationalize our politics; and focus on what’s actually at stake. I think, in your hearts, you know what’s at stake. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Every single one of us has roles to play — a serious role to play in making sure democracy endures — American democracy. I have my role, but, with all due respect, so do you.
In the age of disinformation, credible information that people can trust is more important than ever. And that makes you — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — it makes you more important than ever.
So, tonight, I’d like to make a toast.
To a free press, to an informed citizenry, to an America where freedom and democracy endure. God bless America.
Spot on. Journalism is not a crime. Journalists are the immune system of nations, shedding light on fraud, waste, and abuses of entrusting power, arming publics with the information we need to be self-governing. A free press is a pillar of democracy, never its enemy.
When autocrats around the world and far too close to home stoke hatred towards journalists as "enemies of the people," delegitimize journalism as "fake news," lie about invented sources and intentional deception, and shut down the Internet to repress reporting about elections or wars, it's critical for the president of the United States to make press freedom and Internet freedom top priorities, not just to draw a rhetorical contrast.
I never got used to former President Trump calling journalists the "enemy of the people" – nor should anyone, hearing a President of the United States echo Mao or Stalin.
I will never forget that Trump led a hate movement against journalists and sought to discredit journalism, aided and abetted by his party and Fox News, eventually bringing seditious mob violence to my neighborhood in Capitol Hill in a desperate bid to retain power. He has weakened our union by disarming Americans of the shared facts we need for self governance and action, from climate to safety to public health.
The stakes for the press are incredibly high. The predictable outcome of a President leading a far-right, authoritarian movement that incites hatred toward the press will be for assaults on journalists to rise, and trust in their journalism to fall.
There's much more that President Biden could do to uphold freedom of the press globally and domestically, including a promise to sign a federal shield law if one reaches his desk, a massive investment in public media to replace the civic information sources going dark as local newspapers go under, or simply ending the enforced opacity of background briefings at the White House.
For today, I'll raise a toast to a President of the United States who recognized the importance of an independent, free press to an open, vibrant democracy – and then go back to chiding him for not delivering on the good governance reforms necessary to shore up institutions against corruption and authoritarianism.
