The Twitter account “Bad Legal Takes” called out President Joe Biden for using “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” as an example of how the Constitution is not absolute and that he can add restrictions to the 2nd Amendment:
— Bad Legal Takes (@BadLegalTakes) April 29, 2021
Transcript here:
.@JoeBiden "You cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. From the very beginning there are certain guns, weapons that could not be owned by Americans. Certain people could not own those weapons ever. We are not changing the Constitution. We are being reasonable."
— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) April 29, 2021
He says he’s “being reasonable,” but he’s wrong, of course:
And a million lawyers twitched. https://t.co/TlbEYIxrun
— "Max Nardou" (@MaxNordau) April 29, 2021
Apparently, he ad libbed the line:
FWIW, it appears that the "fire in a crowded theater" line was an improv by Biden. It's not in the transcript the WH released prior to the speech. ? Stay on script next time, @POTUS
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) April 29, 2021
But Biden did graduate law school, right?
Joe Biden once again brought up the 'fire in a crowded movie theater' metaphor to justify infringements on 2A which, for the millionth time, is a free speech case that was later overturned
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 29, 2021
And if he believes this law still holds, cities can start locking up protesters, right?
"Fire in a crowded theater" was a line used to lock up someone for handing out anti-war literature. It is not good law. Even the guy who wrote it rejected it months later. Anyone who cites it is basically citing invalid law in support of locking up war protesters.
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) April 28, 2021
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Do better, Joe:
You absolutely can. This guy is a law school graduate, and he keeps repeating a line from an overturned scotus decision used to throw anti-war demonstrators into prison to rationalize his own attack on the Constitution. https://t.co/kYPXujWyNk
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) April 29, 2021
Yet, it keeps happening:
I still can’t get over Biden’s “you can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” baloney. The guy is the leader of the free world (and a lawyer!) and doesn’t know something as basic as the fact that you can!
— Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) April 29, 2021
[Crickets]:
Are we doing fact checks anymore? Anyone? https://t.co/vyaXgwmEBX
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) April 29, 2021
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