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> The First Amendment protects any jerk with an opinion and a printing press Does the First Amendment even apply to Julian Assange? He is a citizen of Australi
by thrwmawy295201 6y ago
> The First Amendment protects any jerk with an opinion and a printing press
Does the First Amendment even apply to Julian Assange? He is a citizen of Australia as far as I am aware.
- nwallin 6y agoThe 1st Amendment applies to US citizens and non-citizen US permanent residents. It does not apply to foreign nationals. AFAIK Assange is not and was not a US permanent resident, so the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to him. That being said, it would be difficult to convince me that the actions of Assange and Wikileaks rise to the level of espionage. None of what I've seen would indicate that he's actually done that.
- robocat 6y agoThe 1st amendment doesn’t specify citizenship? Also it restricts the government, so only really applies to wherever the US has jurisdiction? https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/page/things-you-need https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/page/things-you-need - see item 3. Disclaimer: I know nothing about the 1st amendment, but nwallin’s claims just sound weird.
- heimatau 6y agoThis is actually a very fair point. Not sure why we don't have news outlets pointing this very critical point.
- kube-system 6y agoThe US Constitution doesn't apply to any citizens, actually. It doesn't grant rights to anyone, it defines what the US government can and cannot do.
- friendlybus 6y agoI believe the argument was something like if the US wants to extradite him and charge him under their own laws theoretically FA would get in the way. If he were run through Canada/UK/Aus courts you wouldnt see the same argument.