Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump's 'Second Amendment' Line Is Protected. Barely.

The law against threatening the president has evolved over time.

August 10, 2016 at 3:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Political hyperbole or a threat?
Photographer: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

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A century ago, Donald Trump might have gone to prison for suggesting that “the Second Amendment people” might find a way to stop Hillary Clinton’s agenda as president. Today, the First Amendment protects him -- barely. It’s still a federal crime to threaten the life of the president, and people go to jail for it all the time, despite the apparent abridgment of free speech. But while Trump’s words would probably get him a Secret Service visit if he were an ordinary crazy person, they wouldn’t lead to prosecution.

The law here is 18 U.S.C. Section 871(a). First passed in 1917 and used to punish threats to Woodrow Wilson’s life, it makes it a felony to utter a threat of bodily harm against the president “knowingly and willfully.”