The White House has responded to the Piers Morgan deportation petition, and ruled that Morgan is protected by the First Amendment. The decision, despite being clearly backed by the Bill of Rights, has sparked yet another Twitter war.
The White House proved that they do actually pay attention to the “We The People” petition website after they made a public response to the petition urging for Piers Morgan to be deported after he shared his opinion about gun laws in America.
After the CNN reporter made it clear that he was disgusted with the gun laws in the midst of the Newton elementary school shooting, petitioners took to the White House website to demand he be deported.
White House Spokesman Jay Carney, responded to the 109,000 plus signees and reminded them that in their haste to defend the Second Amendment, they have overlooked the First.
“When Discussing the Second Amendment, Keep the First in Mind Too,” the written response was titled.
“Americans may disagree on matters of public policy and express those disagreements vigorously, but no one should be punished by the government simply because he or she expressed a view on the Second Amendment – or any other matter of public concern,” he explained in his response to the petition.
So in other words, just as much as they have the right to carry firearms, Piers has the right to call them “incredibly stupid” if he so pleases. Either way, it’s his right as valid Visa holder – which brings us to the second part of the argument.
According to the Piers Morgan deportation petitioners, Morgan’s freedom of speech is guaranteed but since he is not an American citizen his right to live within the country’s borders isn’t promised.
However this seems to be yet another case of people only wanted to enforce one Amendment with no regard to the others.
It is generally held that anyone within U.S borders, whether legal or illegal immigrants – are protected by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
This principle is held up in the 14th Amendment which assures everyone the right to “Due Process.”
The Due Process and Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment states: “…now shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Needless to say, however, not all the petition supporters are seeing eye to eye with the White House for making the decision.
The Daily Caller’s Patrick Howley wrote that he believed the White House “issued a factually incorrect response.”
Howley tried to insist that the First Amendment for some reason just doesn’t apply to non U.S. citizens according to a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that decided it wasn’t a violation of the First Amendment for the Attorney General to deny a journalist entrance into the U.S.
Howley’s opinion was also backed by James Taranto’s tweets about the White House decision.
“Your opinion is protected, your presence in the U.S is not,” Taranto tweeted.
Of course, other users on Twitter weren’t going to remain quiet after the debate spilled unto social media.
“Mandel=Taranto’s proposition,” Joe McDermott tweeted. “Congress = plenary power to exclude aliens. Learn to read.”
According to Justin McLachlan, however, McDermott is the one who needs to do some reading – particularly a few law text books.
“First Amendment = reason Congress can’t arbitrarily deport valid visa holder for political views. Go to law school,” McLachlan tweeted.
Either way Morgan is just happy that the White House has backed his right to stay within U.S borders.
“Thank you for keeping me, Mr President @BarackObama – much appreciated,” Morgan tweeted after the White House made their decision.
Meanwhile, you can’t help but notice a bit of hypocrisy in those who are ready to deport Morgan but aren’t really up in arms about the anti-American “Gangnam Style” rapper Psy hopping in and out of America as he pleases despite the fact that he has made songs calling for Americans (along with their daughter-in-laws and wives) to be killed.
If his freedom of speech is being protected, Morgan’s opinion should definitely be protected as well.
