Yesterday, the administration announced a new Executive Order titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” This broad Order ostensibly instructs the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate and prosecute crimes by groups it suspects of perpetrating political violence. But the fine print is immense cause for concern. The Order defines political violence as the “culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns” of “radicalization” designed to” change or direct policy outcomes.” Radical ideas about how to change society are also known as core political advocacy protected at the very heart of the First Amendment.
While, on the surface, this Executive Order (EO) appears to focus on political violence, it cannot be read without considering the surrounding political context – and this administration’s recent applications of other Executive Orders that touch on speech and advocacy. For example, one of Trump’s first EOs vowed to end political pressures on private companies to censor speech. Despite that EO, the head of the Federal Communications Commission recently used his position to threaten ABC with direct FCC enforcement if the network did not take Jimmy Kimmel off the air. Another EO promising to tackle anti-semitism was followed by the arrest and disappearance of non-citizen students who wrote fully-protected opinion pieces in favor of Palestinian rights. In short, this administration has used EOs to telegraph its intent to silence speech it dislikes, and relied on the EOs to justify exactly the kind of unconstitutional censorship they claim to forbid.
In this case, we needn’t look far to find that the rhetoric and context accompanying this EO targeting “political violence” reveals that it is instead a blueprint for going after political enemies. In just the past week, the President has called for the prosecution of James Comey, George Soros, Letitia James, and broadly “the left” – all political foes of President Trump, not domestic terrorists. There is little chance that this EO will again herald political witch hunts, anathema to our Constitution.
Our Constitution recognizes that for citizens to influence policy outcomes without resorting to violence, they need a wide berth to see, speak, hear, and protest about political convictions – including, and perhaps most especially, radical ideas without being labeled as enemies of the state. Advocacy isn’t terrorism, period. Political dissent lies at the very heart of the First Amendment and remains our most powerful tool of nonviolent conflict resolution.
Yesterday’s Executive Order is a blueprint for law enforcement to cast a wide net in the name of terrorism and political violence, but it is unmistakable in targeting political opponents in its crosshairs. It is dangerous and un-American to conflate dissent with terrorism, and this EO does precisely that.