INJURED PROTESTERS CASE AGAINST TRUMP CAN PROCEED, JUDGE RULES

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By Miriam Raftery

April 3, 2017 (Washington, D.C.) - The Constitution’s First Amendment protects free speech – but not if that speech incites violence.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump once said he’d like to punch a protester in the face.  And at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky in March last year, he pointed at African-American protesters and repeatedly told the crowd to “Get them out.”

Audience members pushed and punched the protesters, two women and a man, Kashiya Nwanguma, Molly Shah and Henry Brousseau. The protesters filed a lawsuit, contending that Trump issued an order that incited the violence against them.  The ugly incident was documented on video.

Trump’s lawyers tried to get the suit dismissed, claiming Trump didn’t really mean what he said, and that he was not responsible for what happened. They asked to have the lawsuit dismissed.

But last week, Judge David Hale ruled that the demonstrators’ injuries were a “direct and proximate results” of Trump’s actions, noting that the Supreme Court has previously held that the Constitution does not protect speech that incites violence—and that even the President can be held accountable for speech that causes physical harm.

In addition to suing Trump, the protesters also sued crowd members who committed the violent acts.  One defendant’s attorney tried to prevent information about his client’s association with a white supremacist group from being heard.

But the judge also rejected that argument, finding that the defendant’s racist views could be included as “repulsive” but “relevant” for a jury to weigh when determining whether punitive damages might also be awarded in addition to compensation for the plaintiffs’ injuries.

The civil case will be next heard by a federal magistrate.


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Comments

slow REAL news day

with all the important items out there, missed this in the line at ralphs

POTUS incited a riot (not) and

was negligent when he ordered protesters removed. Naughty - naughty! . . .Meanwhile our presidents have been attacking, invading, killing, torturing people and destroying whole countries, which is okay, apparently. These things just happen.

Meanwhile , the Russia election-meddling false narrative

seems to be going the other way, as it's been revealed that the Obama administration was spying on the Trump campaign. So Trump and Nunes are no longer the threats, but Susan Rice was. Former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice asked “dozens” of times to unmask anonymous Trump allies mentioned in raw intel reports, a new report says. The National Security Council notified the White House last month after its review turned up Rice’s multiple requests to un-redact the names of then-President-elect Trump’s transition staff from synopses of incidentally collected conversations, unnamed government officials told Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake. The exchanges in question reportedly transpired mostly between foreign officials talking about the presidential transition, but also between foreign officials and Team Trump. Top government officials can unmask incidentally collected names if the information meets the broad requirement of having “foreign intelligence value,” Lake noted — indicating the former national security advisor likely didn’t violate the law. . . . NY Dailynews

Trump had been charged with

incitement to riot, vicarious liability, and negligence. The judge dismissed the second charge and allowed the other two (incitement and negligence) to proceed to "Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl for resolution of all litigation planning issues, entry of scheduling orders, consideration of amendments thereto, and resolution of all nondispositive matters, including discovery issues." . . .here.