Noah Feldman, Columnist

Impeachment Doesn’t Violate Trump’s First Amendment Rights

The former president’s lawyers have advanced three lines of defense, all unconvincing.

February 8, 2021 at 7:26 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."

Setting himself up for impeachment.
Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

The extended trial brief filed by Donald Trump’s lawyers advances three defenses: that Trump did not incite the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol; that the Senate can’t try a president who is no longer in office; and that the First Amendment protects Trump from being impeached for words that, they say, don’t meet the requirements for criminal incitement conviction laid down by the Supreme Court.

The factual defense is highly unconvincing, as anyone who watched Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 and saw the attack can attest.