Panther wrote on Feb 10
th, 2017 at 12:20pm:
cods wrote on Feb 10
th, 2017 at 11:55am:
who cares!!!!!! even a president has the right to speak up for his daughter.
[size=11][font=Georgia][i]I agree.....but we should all care......care that the Freedom of Speech.....The First Amendment to the US Constitution.....is under attack by those that would wish the President would stop using his Constitutional Rights to voice his opinions, solely because they hate him.
Who gave "them" the right to decide who has the Right to the Freedom of Speech, & who does not?
Who decided? The law did panther.
Under US law, the President does *NOT* have freedom of speech when speaking officially as the US president. In this case - using the official presidential twitter handle:
Quote:According to the Code of Federal Regulations, government officials cannot use their public office "for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise." The law further states that officials cannot use their position to give the appearance that the government "sanctions or endorses" the activities of a private party.
Trump gave the appearance of both sanctioning and endorsing 'the activities of a private party' - firstly endorsing his daughter's brand, and secondly sanctioning Nordstrom.
but none of this would have applied if he simply kept his comments under his private twitter account:
Quote:According to Clark, this initial tweet was not an ethical violation. The law ensures that government employees are afforded the right to act as private citizens. "It's absolutely critical that government officials, in general, make communications in their personal capacity," she explains. "And that the government not be able to shut down or gag government employees by prohibiting them from speaking on their own behalf."
But all of that changed when the official @POTUS account retweeted Trump's original tweet, because suddenly the official weight of the government was behind Trump's criticism of Nordstrom's decision to drop Ivanka's products. "The @POTUS handle is seen as government property," Clark says. "It's an official government organ."
https://www.fastcompany.com/3068034/why-trumps-nordstrom-tweet-may-have-crossed-...