After stating on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Google, Facebook, and Twitter is an “important First Amendment case,” law professor Alan Dershowitz was dragged online.
Trump has filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as their CEOs, for alleged censorship. Dershowitz told Sean Hannity of Fox News that the case was “the most important First Amendment lawsuit in the 21st century.”
He went on, “It’s important because it pits freedom of speech on the one hand against the First Amendment on the other hand. That may sound paradoxical, but remember, it’s the high-tech giants that are banning freedom of speech. They are censoring but they’re claiming the right to do so under the First Amendment so they’re using the First Amendment as a sword against freedom of speech. That’s why I call this ‘the new censorship.’”
Some legal professionals, as well as Twitter users, chastised Dershowitz for referring to the case as a First Amendment issue and questioned how he came to that conclusion. Dershowitz has a history as a constitutional and criminal law specialist. He’s also an Emeritus Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
After being banned from Facebook and Twitter, Trump filed a lawsuit against the companies and their CEOs on Wednesday. He hasn’t been allowed to tweet or publish since January, when supporters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to prevent President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory from being certified. Five individuals were killed.
Dershowitz’s characterization of the case was met with skepticism on Twitter. Many people shared a video of his speech. His argument that this was a First Amendment case was rejected by Miranda Yaver, an Oberlin College professor.
“It’s not a First Amendment case. And Dershowitz, delusional though he is, knows this,” said Miranda Yaver, a constitutional law professor.
“How low can a former law professor sink?” Tribe asked. “To call a bogus lawsuit based on a fake version of the First Amendment an important case, much less “the most important” of the century? Has he no shame?”
“Tomorrow I’m suing Fox News for not having me on every day, and the NY Times for not publishing my OpEds, because First Amendment. Awww, just kidding. Unlike delusional Dershowitz, I read the First Amendment and it does not apply to private sector companies,” Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu stated.
Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff termed Dershowitz’s professor emeritus position a “disgrace” and urged Harvard to rethink. “[T]he Law School also has a professional and ethical responsibility to its community – past, present, and future – to associate with faculty who are ethical and have a high regard for the law,” Shroff said.
Others referred to him as a clown or called him names.
Trump for Speaker?
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has promised to nominate former President Donald Trump for Speaker of the House.
Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News tweeted about Republican fundraising in the Panhandle for a “Speaker Trump” campaign, casting doubt on Trump’s desire for the job.
“After the next election cycle when we take back the House of Representatives, when we send [current Speaker] Nancy Pelosi back to the filth of San Francisco, my commitment to you is that my vote for Speaker of the US House of Representatives will go to Donald J. Trump,” Gaetz, a Republican representative from Florida, promised at a Trump rally in Sarasota, Florida.
Trump would not need to win a legislative seat to become Speaker of the House. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is not required under the Constitution to be a current member of the House of Representatives, but every speaker to date has been.
Many legal experts who have looked into the matter think that the founders intended for the Speaker to be selected from a pool of elected officials.
According to NBC News, constitutional expert David Forte of Cleveland State University stated, “It would have been unthinkable for the most populous house not to have its leader be part of the representatives who were elected by the people.”
Trump expressed interest in becoming Speaker of the House on right-wing radio talk show host Wayne Allyn Root last month, but his advisers have since dismissed the notion.
Since Trump departed the White House in January, the “Save America” rally is the second campaign-style gathering hosted by the former president. The July 3 event, billed as an Independence Day celebration, drew hundreds to the Sarasota Fairgrounds.
Since Biden’s certification in January, Republican legislators have said that they anticipate Trump to remain active in Republican politics.
In June, then-Trump spokesman Jason Miller told Punchbowl News that the former president “has zero desire to be speaker.”
“So just think about how great it will feel when, after we take back the House and send Pelosi back to the filth of San Francisco, we make our next Speaker of the House Donald J. Trump!” Gaetz said in the fundraising email.
Gaetz also addressed the escalating controversy around claims that he paid a child for sex.
He said, “They always come out to the fighters,” “I’m a canceled man in some corners of the internet, but in the core of my bones I’m a Florida man and it feels good to be home.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham stated in February that he intended to utilize Trump’s clout to guarantee that Republicans retake the House and Senate in 2022. Graham said he’d meet with Trump to discuss the GOP’s future and his part in it in an interview with Politico.
When questioned about becoming speaker, Trump told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, “Well, I’ve heard the talk, and it’s getting more and more.” “But it’s not something that I would’ve considered, but it is certainly—there’s a lot of talk about it. I have a good relationship with Kevin [McCarthy] and hopefully we will do everything traditionally. But the election was a horrible, horrible thing for our country.”
Due to the continuing search for survivors after the June 24 collapse of a 12-story condominium building in the town of Surfside, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will not attend the event. According to reports, Trump urged the Republican governor to put the rescue operation ahead of his own event.
