Trump's Version of "Domestic Terrorism" vs. the First Amendment

[Nevilledog]

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/trumps-version-domestic-terrorism-vs-first-amendment

Immediately after federal immigration agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, high-level Trump administration officials branded them as “domestic terrorists.” Amid public anger over the killings, President Trump attempted to distance himself from those false accusations. But his retreat in these high-profile cases should not obscure the wider truth: The administration has supercharged the use of domestic terrorism investigations to scare Americans away from using their First Amendment rights to oppose its policies.

These tactics risk criminalizing constitutionally protected activity — from joining a protest march to posting on social media — while inflicting draconian punishments for actions that are far removed from actual terrorism. They represent a natural extension of the government’s long-standing deployment of the domestic terrorism framework to target progressive activists. They’re also a dangerous and unwarranted expansion of the executive’s investigative and punitive authorities.

Post-9/11 Violations

The Patriot Act, passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks, introduced a legal definition of domestic terrorism: acts that are dangerous to human life, violate a state or federal law, occur primarily within the United States, and “appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.” Domestic terrorism itself is not a standalone crime; instead, the statute sets out over 50 other “federal crimes of terrorism,” such as bombing a building and destroying infrastructure. However, as the definition makes clear, any federal or state crime can be used as the basis for a domestic terrorism investigation if it is “dangerous to human life” and has the required intent.

This framework has long allowed the government to pursue a range of investigations justified by fighting domestic terrorism — authority it has aimed disproportionately at activists for progressive causes based in significant part on their ideology rather than violent conduct.

*snip*

[Walleye]

1. Their healthcare and reproductive policies are dangerous to human life more than anything