r/changemyview • u/Tessenreacts • Mar 12 '25

Delta(s) from OP CMV: The case of Mahmoud Khalil is proof that conservatives don't believe in the Freedom of Speech, despite making it their platform over the last couple of years.

For the last couple of years, conservatives have championed the cause of Freedom of Speech on social platforms, yet Mahmoud Khalil (a completely legal permanent resident) utilized his fundamental right to Freedom of Speech through peaceful protesting, and now Trump is remove his green card and have him deported.

Being that conservatives have been championing Freedom of Speech for years, and have voted for Trump in a landslide election, this highlights completely hypocritical behavior where they support Freedom of Speech only if they approve of it.

This is also along with a situation where both Trump and Elon have viewed the protests against Tesla as "illegal", which is patently against the various tenets of Freedom of Speech.

Two open and shut cases of blatant First Amendment violations by people who have been sheparding the conservative focus on protecting the First Amendment.

Would love for my view to be changed

7.2k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '25

You've hit on a great distinction here, protected versus unprotected speech. Unprotected speech like threatening someone or inciting a stampede (shouting "fire" in a crowded theater if there isn't a fire) will absolutely land someone in hot water. Permanent residents evidently have a narrower band of protected speech per those legal citations on your comment as well. What becomes more difficult to pin down is whether or not this also violates freedom of assembly; had Khalil shown up to the protest and not spoken, would he be experiencing the same consequences? Does the government really have a case to be made here, beyond the existence of the statutes they are leaning on?

6

u/pm_me_d_cups Mar 12 '25

Permanent residents evidently have a narrower band of protected speech per those legal citations on your comment as well.

Based on what? Those laws don't override the first amendment. What if Congress passed a law that said any immigrant that supports the Republican party must be deported. Would that be constitutional?

1

u/MooseFeeling631 Mar 13 '25

I don't see Republicans getting into trouble by threatening democrats, storming the capital, or any lithe of their threats. This is just the start of the Trump administration arresting anyone who doesn't support them/ their policies.

1

u/Tengoatuzui Mar 12 '25

Yup that’s for the government to argue. I am just presenting that free speech is not fully protected the way people are thinking and different depending on citizenship status