[AnimalMuppet]

It's worrying that he tweets that. It's like he doesn't have a clue about the first amendment or the rule of law. We elected him to be president, not to be a dictator.

So he's, essentially, ignorant about American civics. It's a shame that he's ignorant, and more of a shame that a person ignorant on that topic got elected. That said, the courts are supposed to limit the effect of such ignorance about how the system works, and about what our rights are.

If the courts start failing in that role, that will be cause for very serious concern.

[dragonwriter]

> If the courts start failing in that role, that will be cause for very serious concern

Courts are mostly able to act after-the-fact of alleged violations; by the time they fail to do their job, it will be way too late to start being concerned.

[AnimalMuppet]

True. But say somebody burns a flag on inauguration day (probable). Say Trump tweets that the person should be arrested (also probable). What happens? Does the person get arrested, or do the police know (and follow) the relevant court rulings?

If the person gets arrested, do they get prosecuted, or does the prosecutor know and follow the relevant court rulings?

If the person gets prosecuted, does it come to trial, or does the judge throw it out?

If it comes to trial, does the person get convicted, or does the judge or jury rule that this behavior is protected by the First Amendment?

At every step, the flag burner should be home free. If they wind up facing a year in jail or losing their citizenship, that is not just time to start being concerned - it's time to start thinking seriously about leaving the country. But I'm more optimistic than that. I think, however, that it will be interesting to see how far it goes before it's thrown out, to see exactly how broken things currently are...