Trump arrest petitioners don’t get what they want

Some liberals really get my goat. Those who know me say, “Huh what? You, who are to the left of Uncle Joe Stalin?”  Well, maybe my ire is misdirected. Perhaps it was not only far left types who posted the proposition on the White House “We The People” site, that said Donald Trump should be arrested for inciting violence. A report by NBCnews.com reports that more than 100,000 people signed the petition. The number was sufficient for a response from the White House, but the Obama administration said, in effect, “Nice try.”

“We decline to comment on the specific request raised in the petition, which falls outside the scope of the We the People Terms of Participation,” the We the People Team says. “You can read https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/how-why/terms-participation to get a better sense of why We the People is designed the way it is, and to learn more about its guidelines for use.

 “We encourage you to use the We the People platform to petition the Administration to take action on the policy issues you care about. If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure that it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts for their review, and issue an official response.”

The people who petitioned We the People, whomever any of they are, used a 1969 Supreme Court case, Brandenburg v. Ohio, as a precedent. The First Amendment case centered around the appeal of a Ku Klux Klan leader arrested under a criminal syndication law.

The Supreme opinion used a test that included (1) speech can be prohibited if it is “directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action” and (2) it is “likely to incite or produce such action.”

Such a test was the legal argument used in the failed petition.

Trump has been using music at his rallies by various performers, including the Rolling Stones, who say the candidate used the music without permission. Those songs include the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” That seems an appropriate song for those hundred thousand or so who filed the petition.

If Trump or any of the other batch in the GOP isn’t elected maybe then, “If you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.”