Don't assume the first amendment will thwart Trump's pro-censorious agenda | Jameel Jaffer

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

41% : If Trump revives the selective-enforcement strategy, the court will have to return to this question.
40% : When Assange pleaded guilty, earlier this year, to one charge of violating the 1917 Espionage Act, he spared the courts from having to address the first amendment question the Pentagon Papers case left open - but of course that means that the question is still open now, to be answered finally by a supreme court that Trump himself will have shaped.Also open, or at least not fully resolved, is the question of when government investigators can compel journalists to reveal their sources.
39% : Trump has already appointed three of the court's justices and he may have the opportunity to appoint more - at a time when the very meaning of free speech is deeply contested.
36% : Even without Trump as president, the supreme court in the next few years would have to deal with consequential free speech questions relating to social media surveillance, artificial intelligence, online censorship, the government's authority to access privately held data and the right of citizens to use foreign technology platforms.
34% : With Trump in the Oval Office, the court will find itself having to answer a slew of critical questions it has skirted or sidestepped for years.
33% : With Trump in the Oval Office, the US supreme court will find itself having to answer questions it has sidestepped for yearsA president who intends to prosecute journalists, deport student protesters, imprison flag-burners, shut down broadcasters and throw the book at whistleblowers - to list just a few of president-elect Donald Trump's speech-suppressive ideas - is likely to collide very quickly with the first amendment.
21% : So, yes, Trump will run up against the first amendment, but don't take for granted that he will be thwarted by it.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.