A federal judge is refusing to order the removal of a controversial flag that reads “86 47” flying close to the White House. The Secret Service called for the flag flying at the corner of Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues to come down, arguing the phrase may incite violence against President Donald Trump.
However, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote in his order, 鈥淭he government seeks to squelch core political speech without any articulable 鈥� much less evidentiary 鈥� basis for concluding that the speech actually threatens the life or safety of the President.鈥�
also goes into a lengthy discussion about the phrase 86, saying it is a slang term with no single meaning.
鈥淎ccording to Merriam-Webster, eighty-six is slang meaning 鈥榯o throw out,’ ‘to get rid of,鈥� or ‘to refuse service to,'” the order reads.
Former FBI Director James Comey spelled out the same phrase with seashells and posted it on Instagram, and is now facing criminal charges.
The group Accountability Now put the flag up around May 12 and has another two weeks, under a National Park Service permit, to leave it up. The organization asked the federal courts to get involved after its members were confronted by Secret Service Officers and were asked to take the flag down.
According to the court documents, a Secret Service officer had an exchange about the flag with an unnamed person who was part of Accountability Now. In that exchange, the officer tells the volunteer they had gotten a call because of the flag and what it could stand for.
The volunteer then tells the officer they had never heard of the phrase “86 47” standing for anything other than, “Trump shouldn’t be in office,” and that the they were not threatening violence against the president, court documents state.
“I want Trump to live forever and rot in jail where he belongs,” the volunteer told the officer, according to court documents.
But about 25 minutes later, two different officers approached and things became more confrontational, court documents state, when they read the same volunteer the Miranda warning. She was not arrested, but the Secret Service opened an investigation into the volunteer as a “potential threat,” according to court documents.
Secret Service returned last week and ordered the flag be taken down, saying it was a threat to the president, and the court battle ensued.
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