A federal judge ruled that the National Park Service (NPS) could not revoke a permit for an anti-Trump protest in Washington, DC, over the display of an “86 47” flag.
The Secret Service believes the statement, “86 47″ serves as a potential call for violence against President Donald Trump. Court documents revealed federal officers ordered the flag to be taken down last week after a shooting outside the White House.
“The government seeks to squelch core political speech without any articulable — much less evidentiary — basis for concluding that the speech actually threatens the life or safety of the President,” U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote in his opinion.
“On the current record, Defendants have offered no basis to doubt that Plaintiff is engaged in fully protected First Amendment activity,” the judge continued.
Moss was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a district judge.
The NPS and the protestors have also sparred over if protest signs amount to unprotected obscenity, but the district judge has yet to rule on that issue.
Protestors have held signs that stated, “Kids, if your parents are MAGA, they love child rapists.”
The lawsuit arose as a weekslong, 24/7 protest has continued near the George Gordon Meade statue in the nation’s capital, near the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue NW and Constitution Avenue NW, near a federal courthouse.
Volunteers with the protest group Accountability Now USA have taken shifts to keep a presence day and night, saying they are holding the protest to engage in conversation with passersby to demand Trump’s impeachment.
The Hill wrote:
Tensions escalated once protesters last month began displaying a red, white and blue flag with the message “86 47.” The phrase “86” is a slang term for removing or throwing out something, and Trump is the 47th president. The numbers are at the center of a legal case against former FBI director James Comey.
The protestors insist they merely using the phrase to demand Trump’s impeachment and don’t intend it as a threat. The Secret Service doesn’t construe it that way, and it told the court a protestor who was seen displaying the flag is under investigation.
“Based on my training and experience, I believe that this term, as it is understood today, can incite violence by others,” Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn wrote to the judge.
