[ScaringChildren]

Originally Posted by Euinki Angel [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Trump’s message to the journalists who cover him could not be clearer: If a reporter chooses to persistently question the president about a topic he finds unpleasant or wishes to avoid—as Acosta, April Ryan, Sam Donaldson, and other leading journalists have long sought—she can expect to be expelled from the White House.

The president’s staff contends that its new rules simply codify long-standing “widely understood practices.” That is not true. As the White House Correspondents’ Association stated following the announcement: “For as long as there have been White House press conferences, reporters have asked follow-up questions.” Chuck Todd offered a more pointed critique that “regulating follow ups is a form of censorship.” Indeed, the most effective questioning of Trump White House officials has invariably come in the form of follow-up questions.

Trump’s rules are not only new, they are also very likely unconstitutional, as indicated by the fact that the White House was ordered to return Acosta’s press pass last week. Trump’s surrogates have attempted to minimize the significance of his courtroom loss, asserting, as Corey Lewandowski did, that Acosta’s case was “not an issue of the First Amendment.” That is not true.

In its 1977 decision in Sherrill v. Knight, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recognized that journalists have a constitutional right of access to the White House press facilities and ruled that the “first amendment guarantee of freedom of the press … requires that this access not be denied,” except in extraordinary circumstances. In the lexicon of contemporary constitutional law, the court concluded that the White House press facilities constitute a limited public forum.

It’s true that Kelly did not squarely reach the question of whether Donald Trump unconstitutionally penalized Acosta for the content of his reporting, but that was only because the judge did not need to do so in order to grant CNN’s demand for the immediate return of his press pass.

As the judge explained, apart from allegedly unconstitutionally punishing Acosta for the content of his reporting, the White House also failed to satisfy the Fifth Amendment’s due process requirements for denying the journalist his constitutionally protected right of access to the White House. In light of the “violation of Mr. Acosta’s due process rights and the resulting impact on his First Amendment interests,” the court ruled that the pass had to be returned immediately.....


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You realize that as an elected official of the government, Trumpenfurhuer is administratively bound by the constitution?


So tell me, why does an elected official want to CENSURE his constituents speech? Isn't that pretty unconstitutional?

Every single reporter in that room vigorously questions Trump and yet only Acosta gets in trouble.

I wonder why?

Maybe because Acosta is acting like a grandstanding asshole and being disruptive.

When you interrupt the entire event with disorderly conduct, you need to be set straight.