The jackboots came for Khalil

Photo by ev on Unsplash

With the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, Trump is flexing unconstitutional muscle and daring the nation to flinch.

Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, organized peaceful and non-violent pro-Palestinian student protests last year. He was pulled from his apartment over the weekend by “special agents from a department in ICE” who informed Khalil that the State Department had revoked his student visa. When advised that Khalil was a green card holder and lawful permanent resident, ICE said his green card had been revoked too.

Khalil was not arrested for vandalism, trespassing, or for violating any laws whatsoever. He was arrested for the political content of his speech criticizing government policies on Gaza.

Arresting people for their political speech is textbook unconstitutional

Arresting people for their political viewpoint has long been prohibited. Any government attempt to restrict speech based on the content of that speech must satisfy the strictest scrutiny, meaning the restriction adopted by the government must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. “I don’t like what he said” has never been a compelling enough interest for the government to stop him from saying it, so Trump is adding a veneer of national security threat to justify the arrest.

Political speech is the heart of the First Amendment. Based on our founders' well-earned mistrust of governmental power, the premier and most exalted amendment to the U.S. Constitution was crafted to protect against the government's “attempts to disfavor certain subjects or viewpoints,” and soundly “prohibits the government from restricting speech based on content of that speech,” as the Supreme Court reiterated in U.S. v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000).

Trump using state power to silence political speech has far wider and more frightening implications than whether one agrees with his policies on Israel. Silencing political opponents presents the steepest of autocratic slopes. If we lose the right to publicly criticize or disagree with the government, we lose the right to choose that government.

Trump is doubling down

The principal reason dictators control speech is to consolidate power. Silencing critics means that the state controls the narrative, and is free to create, spin and disseminate “alternative facts” to ensure that those in power stay there.

Taking his cues from Russia’s Putin, known for arresting his critics in the night, Trump took to his rancid propaganda website to breast-beat, posting falsely that Khalil was a threat:

• “This is the first arrest of many to come… We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”

No credible, legal claim can be made that Trump’s actions are justifiable under the First Amendment. But Instead of acknowledging the obvious, Fox News and the rightwing echo chamber are parroting Trump’s unfact-checked claim that Khalil is a terrorist, repeating Trump’s King Kong declaration that, "If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply."

Applying Trump’s sentiment to Trump, his support for Putin’s slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Ukraine would lead to his own deportation.

Censorship then and now

In our founders' time, silencing political critics meant the Intolerable Acts, passed in 1774 to punish colonists for their political speech against the British government. That act of political suppression led to the Revolutionary War, which eventually produced a brilliant treatise centuries ahead of its time. In laying out principles of freedom and free governance the world had not yet seen or conceived, the framers of the U.S. Constitution showed a singular and unmatched genius that, pre-Trump, inspired the world.

During our time, silencing critics and controlling political speech means Trump and his oligarchs can say anything they want, and much of the public never hears information to the contrary. It means Fox News continues to flood 43% of the country with Trump propaganda and lies, no matter how dangerous to national security, because there is no legal requirement that they tell the truth. It means Trump, like Hitler, Putin and Orban, has taught right wing media that lies sell. It means that half the US will believe Trump’s dangerous claims that Ukraine was the aggressor against Russia. It means that when Trump calls Khalil or anyone else a terrorist, half the country will believe it, even though it is patently false.

Revolutionary war heroes cry from the grave: America! Speak out now!

To understand the historical underpinnings of the First Amendment is to revere it for the stroke of genius, timeless insight into human conduct, and beacon for universal freedom that it was. “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech” is the backbone of democracy. Small wonder Trump wants to break it.

If you’ve been quietly watching Trump’s treasonous attack on America’s interests, now is the time to speak out. Paint those signs. Go to your local protests. Demand a town hall. Get loud. Support Khalil on every social media you use, no matter how you feel about Israel. Understand—know it in your bones—that in America, the federal government can never silence you for the political content of your speech.

In your spare time, read some early American history. To understand the singular beauty of the First Amendment is the only way to grasp the danger of allowing Trump and his anti-American goons to trample it.

Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1^st and 14^th A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.