Trump Thinking About "Changing" the First Amendment

As a student in a course entirely devoted to discussing the First Amendment, its importance, and its implications, one can imagine my shock when I came across a headline reading "SHOCK: Trump Considering 1st Amendment Clampdown." The First Amendment is literally synonymous to the American ideal, and the democracy we have today would not exist without it. The fact that an Amendment existing since the foundation of this country is possibly going to be changed by today's president is just shocking

It's shocking because of President Trump's rationale in wanting to change the First Amendment. He's sick and tired of the "fake news" circulating in this country apparently, and his idea in combatting such news is to squash the freedom of the press. Never mind that there are 5 other freedoms outlined in the classes of the First Amendment. Never mind that libel law literally protects the news due to the Actual Malice Standard, which, as we learned with NYT v. Sullivan in 1961, "requires that the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case , if he is a “public figure,” prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity." The First Amendment must be altered to accommodate this sudden, brand new, influx of false publishing.

Needless to say, I doubt the First Amendment will actually be changed. If it does, Trump's probably got a lot coming for him from thousands and thousands of outraged Americans. I wish him luck. The point of this post was to point out how little the leader of our great nation actually knows of the First Amendment and how crucial it is to making our country the way that it is. Without the First Amendment, our democracy is no longer a democracy, and without our special brand of democracy, the people's voices are not heard.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shock-trump-considering-1st-amendment-clampdown_us_5909e15be4b084f59b49fe76