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Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

thehill.com

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Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#11

Post by jlebar »

shshhdhs wrote: post #5

I was curious if a case could be made for First Amendment rights, but I just re-read it... "Congress shall make no law regarding..." I guess Executive Orders can bypass all of that.

It's important to remember that the Constitution is, in effect, more than just the text as you read it. All parts of the law, but particularly the Constitution, are "interpreted" by the judiciary, and these interpretations have the force of law. In particular, the First Amendment as interpreted by the courts is a lot more complicated than just what it says.

For example, your strict reading would suggest that the states could make a law restricting freedom of speech (&c). But the Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that the First Amendment precludes such actions by the states:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitlow_v._New_York

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#12

Post by gdulli »

FreakyT wrote: post #3

It's downright impressive how comic-book-evil this administration is. Next up, the white house will presumably be moved to a volcano base with overly large ventilation shafts.

It would be hard for Trump to get such an ambitious project done given his reputation for not paying contractors.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#13

Post by serge2k »

FreakyT wrote: post #3

It's downright impressive how comic-book-evil this administration is. Next up, the white house will presumably be moved to a volcano base with overly large ventilation shafts.

I don't really see evil. I see a combination of incompetence and hard right-wing policy.

I really don't like the latter, but at least you can argue it (e.g. pulling out of TPP is a perfectly reasonable position to take).

The former is just... ugh. Huge numbers of unfilled positions, firing all the ambassadors with no replacements, completely unqualified cabinet nominees (DeVos, Carson, Perry).

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#14

Post by serge2k »

gdulli wrote: post #12
FreakyT wrote: post #3

It's downright impressive how comic-book-evil this administration is. Next up, the white house will presumably be moved to a volcano base with overly large ventilation shafts.

It would be hard for Trump to get such an ambitious project done given his reputation for not paying contractors.

The nearby native inhabitants are going to pay for it.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#15

Post by barney54 »

cyberferret wrote: post #6

I am looking for reasonable explanations for this, but keep coming up blank. I grew up in a country where this sort of censorship and fact hiding was the norm, and hated it. I now live in a country that is much freer, but for the first time since 1938, no longer has an active US ambassador, with no replacement in sight, since President Trump fired all US ambassadors to foreign countries on the afternoon of his inaugu…

Here's an explanation--the new management of the agencies want to review the social media policies.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#16

Post by tristanj »

Title appears to be clickbait. The original AP story [1] says this restriction applies to the agency's social media accounts. It does not say this restriction applies to employee's personal social media accounts, as thehill.com implies. This is the relevant section from the AP article:

> Emails sent to EPA staff and reviewed by The Associated Press also detailed specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency's social media accounts.

[1] https://www.apnews.com/5ada25fc57b44a0989e681d6dc2a3daf/Trum...

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#18

Post by Avshalom »

barney54 wrote: post #15
cyberferret wrote: post #6

I am looking for reasonable explanations for this, but keep coming up blank. I grew up in a country where this sort of censorship and fact hiding was the norm, and hated it. I now live in a country that is much freer, but for the first time since 1938, no longer has an active US ambassador, with no replacement in sight, since President Trump fired all US ambassadors to foreign countries on the afternoon of his inaugu…

Here's an explanation--the new management of the agencies want to review the social media policies.

> social media policies

social media policies is sci-fi way of saying "people saying things" though.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#19

Post by wiml »

shshhdhs wrote: post #5

I was curious if a case could be made for First Amendment rights, but I just re-read it... "Congress shall make no law regarding..." I guess Executive Orders can bypass all of that.

I think this order's authority probably comes from the fact that Trump is the head of the Executive branch, not from any legislative power. That is, they're in a boss/employee type relationship.

Re: Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates

#20

Post by Avshalom »

woofyman wrote: post #8
shshhdhs wrote: post #5

I was curious if a case could be made for First Amendment rights, but I just re-read it... "Congress shall make no law regarding..." I guess Executive Orders can bypass all of that.

The president can't issue unconstitutional executive orders but has great powers over the executive branch which this falls under.

He absolutely can, they just might not hold up three years later when it finally makes it to the supreme court (or they might depends on who's there)
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