Do menacing comments about Hillary Clinton cross the First Amendment line?; Washington Post, 8/10/16

James Hoefler, Washington Post; Do menacing comments about Hillary Clinton cross the First Amendment line? :

"Did Trump cross the First Amendment line with his comments? We look for guidance to the Supreme Court’s most recent case to test the limits of this sort of speech: Brandenburg v. Ohio. In that 1969 decision, the court set forth a three-part test to determine the contours of First Amendment sanctuary: Was criminal action (1) intended, (2) imminent and (3) likely?...

We all celebrate the First Amendment and its broad protections of speech, as egregious and unpresidential as that language might sometimes seem. But all political liberties come with limits, and a case could be made that Trump’s brutal entreaties have exceeded that limit. Should he continue to exhort violence at his rallies, it may be his own legal defense needs, rather than those of his followers, that he will need to worry about."

Trump’s Ambiguous Wink Wink to ‘Second Amendment People’; New York Times, 8/9/16

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times; Trump’s Ambiguous Wink Wink to ‘Second Amendment People’ :

"People are playing with fire here, and there is no bigger flamethrower than Donald Trump. Forget politics; he is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him. I only pray that he is not simply defeated, but that he loses all 50 states so that the message goes out across the land — unambiguously, loud and clear: The likes of you should never come this way again."

How Trump Made Bigotry Fashionable; Huffington Post, 5/10/16

Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post; How Trump Made Bigotry Fashionable:

"Many Trump followers are looking for jobs and perhaps a strong authoritarian leader. They have a, fear of change and a fear of jihadist threats since September 11, 2001 and the bombings in France and Belgium. The easy answer is to find scapegoats and Trump has given them a list to justify nativism.

More disturbing than propagating propaganda (phony figures, for example, showing most whites are killed by blacks) is his denial that words have consequences. He insists he is not responsible for chaos and physical violence at his rallies.

As author Jodi Picoult wrote in Salem Falls:

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”"

The Trump Campaign Gives License to Violence; New York Times, 3/14/16

Editorial Board, New York Times; The Trump Campaign Gives License to Violence:

"Here’s a medley of Mr. Trump’s comments condoning violence over the past few weeks:

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”

“In the good old days this doesn’t happen, because they used to treat them very, very rough.”

“I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”

“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would ya? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them...”

Protesting in front of the Boca Raton rally on Sunday, Kate Newton and Elizabeth Versalie, both in their 50s, said they had to speak out. They turned up at the amphitheater two hours before the rally and were denied entry when security guards saw their signs, which said “Stop the Hate.”

“It’s all about standing up for freedom of speech for us,” Ms. Versalie said. “Nobody should be running a campaign on fear and bigotry.”"

Trump’s History of Encouraging Violence; New York Times, 3/14/16

[Video] Ainara Tiefenthaler, New York Times; Trump’s History of Encouraging Violence:

"Donald J. Trump has appealed to the raw anger of voters and encouraged crowds at rallies to use force against protesters who are disruptive."