Reporter Colin Dialeda of the
new media portal Mashable notes
on Mar. 13, 2016, that despite the heat presidential frontrunner Donald Trump
is taking for his forceful and rather in-your-face admonition to give the old
heave-ho to protesters at his rallies, he has the law on his side.
And who does Dialeda cite as the fiery Trump being in the
right? The American Civil Liberties Union. That’s right, the same bastion of
liberal interpretation of the US Constitution may have had the law of
unintended consequences bite them right on the tuchas.
As cited by Dialeda, back in 2012, a certain federal law
better known as H.R. 347 legislated
specifically on dealing with protest, was amended to make it a crime to
“disrupt the orderly conduct of government business or official functions.
”Here’s the rub – 347 is applied to areas where the U.S.
Secret Service is providing protection. Along with Hillary Clinton and Bernie
Sanders, Trump is the recipient of Secret Service protection.
In the wake of 347 making the change that now specifically
includes the Secret Service bubble of protection, the A.C.L.U. issued a
statement on their official website making
clear exactly where they stood on 347.
While leery of the expansion of the U.S.S.S. arrest powers
at events they’ve been assigned, the A.C.L.U. admits “The original statute,
unchanged by H.R. 347, made certain conduct with respect to these restricted
areas a crime, including simple trespass, actions in or near the restricted
area that would ‘disrupt the orderly conduct of Government,’ and blocking the
entrance or exit to the restricted area.”
