Can you joke about killing the president

The applicable legal standard is this thing called the "true threat doctrine. The true threat analysis examines the tweet both objectively would a reasonable person see this as a threat and subjectively knowing what we do from the context of the situation, did this person really mean it when they said, "I want to shoot Donald Trump in the head"?

That's how we'd evaluate this. If the objective and subjective standards are met, then it's a true threat, and the doctrine says that First Amendment concerns can be overwritten because true threats are serious enough, dangerous enough, to prosecute. You don't have the right to kill somebody, and if you're close enough to making that true threat, then you can be punished regardless of free speech.

Do you think the rubric for deciding true threat is fair? In those abstract terms, I do think it's fair. I think that there's sort of this hazy line between speech and conduct. It's fine to regulate conduct for the most part, but because of the First Amendment, we really, really frown on regulating speech. So the true threat analysis tries to get at when we are so close on that speech line that it's about to tip over into serious conduct that should be prohibited, and that it's OK for authorities to go in and punish someone.

The problem, I think, is that it's still pretty hazy, and it gives a lot of discretion to law enforcement, and even the judges assigned to these cases, about if the true threat standard was really met. So that's maybe the more problematic part. If I'm brought to trial, would a judge and a jury have access to all of my online communication history? Would Facebook and Google just hand over my online profile if asked to? Not necessarily. The prosecutor would have to make a reasonable case that there's real suspicion to access all of your online communications.

But, once they establish that a threat has been made, a prosecutor can definitely make a reasonable case and say, "Well, we need to know more about the context. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone," he said in the statement. Read More. The comments, abhorrent and offensive in any context, come at a sensitive time in terms of violence and political discourse, just eight days after a gunman opened fire on members of Congress at an Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field where they were practicing for a charity baseball game.

That shooting injured Republican Steve Scalise, the majority whip of the House of Representatives, who remains hospitalized.

As Depp predicted at Glastonbury, the comment indeed made headlines and the White House did not appear to find it funny. White House calls Johnny Depp's remark about assassination 'sad'. White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested that there was a double standard about threats of violence toward Trump.

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on Depp's colleagues "to speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official. See United States v. Apel , 44 F. In , Johnny Logan Spencer Jr. It is time for Obama to die. I am dedicating my life to the death of Obama and every employee of the federal government. As I promised in a previous post, if the health care reform bill passed I would become a terrorist.

Today I become a terrorist. In September the Secret Service investigated Facebook polls that asked whether President Barack Obama should be assassinated because of his healthcare legislation. In , the 9th Circuit U.

Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of Walter Bagdasarian for making online threats against Obama. Section was enacted in Courts since then have tried to clarify the standards for its violation. None of these are actual threats, but rather expressions of frustration and anger. It seems crazy that a reality TV guy basically known for being a rich jerk is now in charge of everything, I know. Maybe you get fired up by being in front of a crowd, maybe you have a couple of glasses of wine, maybe you just want to demonstrate how anti-Trump you really are—I get how someone might end up saying, Ha ha what if I just shot the president of the United States, like with a rifle or whatever?

But this will always, always make you look like an asshole. Ted Nugent looked like an asshole when he talked about political violence in , saying, "If Barack Obama becomes the next president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.

Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. If anyone takes you seriously when you talk about killing politicians, they'll assume you are unhinged. If they know you're joking, they might think you're downright childish.