{"id":1598,"date":"2012-12-27T20:23:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T01:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hlpr\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:22:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:22:06","slug":"piers-morgan-and-the-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2012\/12\/27\/piers-morgan-and-the-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Piers Morgan and the First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Peters
\n<\/em>Follow me<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>@jonathanwpeters<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>on Twitter.<\/p>\n

<\/em>I have no idea if it\u2019s ironic to have\u00a010,000 spoons when all you need is a knife\u00a0(I mean, why have so many spoons in the first place?), but I do know it\u2019s ironic to exercise your First Amendment rights in order to deport a man for exercising his First Amendment rights, all to discuss a provision of the Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n

Enter: Piers Morgan.
\n
\nLast week, he invited Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, to appear on \u201cPiers Morgan Tonight.\u201d \u00a0Against the backdrop of the Newton school shooting, the two\u00a0debated the meaning\u00a0of the Second Amendment and the effectiveness of American gun laws, and things got heated when Morgan called Pratt \u201can unbelievably stupid man.\u201d \u00a0Shortly thereafter,\u00a0a petition appeared\u00a0on the White House website, on the \u201cWe the People\u201d page, calling for Morgan\u2019s deportation.\u00a0 (He\u2019s a British citizen.)\u00a0 In its entirety, the petition reads:<\/p>\n

British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. \u00a0We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.<\/p>\n

<\/em>The petition needed 25,000 signatures by Jan. 20 to receive a response from the White House. \u00a0As of this writing, nearly 80,000 people have signed it. \u00a0That\u2019s nearly 80,000 people who want to deport Morgan because he expressed opinions contrary to theirs, because he said things that offended them, because he commented on a matter of public concern.<\/p>\n

Morgan responded to the petition\u00a0in a tweet, on Dec. 22: \u201cIronic U.S. gun rights campaign to deport me for \u2018attacking 2nd Amendment rights\u2019 \u2013 is my opinion not protected under 1st Amendment rights?\u201d \u00a0A few days later,\u00a0Morgan tweeted: \u201cI don\u2019t care about petition to deport me. \u00a0I do care about poor NY firefighters murdered\/injured with an assault weapon today. #GunControlNow,\u201d referring to the Monday shooting in Webster, N.Y.<\/p>\n

Then, an amusing\u00a0counter-petition appeared\u00a0on Tuesday, again on the \u201cWe the People\u201d page, titled \u201cKeep Piers Morgan in the USA.\u201d \u00a0So far, more than 3,500 people have signed it. \u00a0Here\u2019s the language, in its entirety:<\/p>\n

We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA. \u00a0There are two very good reasons for this. \u00a0Firstly, the first amendment. \u00a0Second and the more important point. \u00a0No one in the UK wants him back. \u00a0Actually there is a third. \u00a0It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react.<\/p>\n

<\/em>Hilarious, indeed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d count James Taranto, the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0columnist, among those \u201cloads of angry Americans.\u201d \u00a0Hetweeted at Morgan\u00a0last week that the law might well allow the administration to deport him: \u201cYour opinion is protected, your presence in the U.S. is not. \u00a0See Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972).\u201d \u00a0Never mind that theKleindienst case, which focused on the rights of an alien scholar to enter the country to attend academic meetings, has no bearing whatsoever on the Morgan controversy.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the freedoms of petition and speech are expressly set out in the First Amendment: \u201cCongress shall make no law \u2026 abridging the freedom of speech \u2026 or the right of the people \u2026 to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the one hand, it warms my little heart to see so many people exercising their right to petition.\u00a0 On the other hand, it breaks my little heart to see so many people exercise that right in service of suppressing the freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

The writer Anthony Lewis once said we\u2019re freer in the United States to say what we think and to think what we will than any other people in the world. \u00a0And that\u2019s true.\u00a0 Courts have struggled for years to define the extent of our expressive rights, and the result has been an evolving First Amendment story, one moved along by trial and error.<\/p>\n

I tend to believe that ideas should compete in the marketplace for acceptance, although I\u2019ll admit that the marketplace should be regulated (not all speech deserves protection, e.g., defamatory statements).\u00a0 The real challenge, then, is that most of us say we\u2019re committed to principles of free speech\u2014but only in the abstract or with viewpoints we like.\u00a0 We\u2019re not so committed with viewpoints we don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

Courts wrestle often with that reality in order to protect the rights of people who say things that are different, offensive, or unpopular. \u00a0That reality is important because the real power of the First Amendment lies not in the protection it gives to popular speech. \u00a0The real power of the First Amendment lies in the protection it gives to unpopular speech.<\/p>\n

To some, Morgan \u201cengaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution\u201d and tried \u201cto undermine the Bill of Rights.\u201d\u00a0 He said unpopular things.\u00a0 I leave the gun-control debate to others, to people far more knowledgeable. \u00a0But it\u2019s clear to me\u00a0that there is no greater way to undermine the Bill of Rights than to call for the deportation of a commentator who exercised his First Amendment rights to discuss the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Peters is a media lawyer and the Frank Martin Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism, where he is finishing his Ph.D. and specializing in the First Amendment. He blogs about free expression for the<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Harvard Law & Policy Review<\/em>, and he has written on legal issues for<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The Atlantic<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Slate<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The Nation<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Wired<\/em>, PBS, and the\u00a0<\/strong>Columbia Journalism Review<\/em>. Follow him<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>@jonathanwpeters<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>on Twitter.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Peters Follow me\u00a0@jonathanwpeters\u00a0on Twitter. I have no idea if it\u2019s ironic to have\u00a010,000 spoons when all you need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-pM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}