Professor Enrique Armijo, a scholar of the First Amendment and speech protections, offered commentary on merchandise sold online by Donald Trump Jr.
When the son of former President Donald J. Trump is selling T-shirts that read “Fauci Kills Puppies” and “Let’s Go Brandon” through an online retail platform, is there cause for legal action?
An article on the influential British news website The Independent attempts to answer that question by interviewing American legal scholars of the First Amendment – including Elon Law Professor Enrique Armijo.
“Donald Trump Jr is running one of the internet’s most offensive t-shirt stores – how does he get away with it?” was published October 30, 2021.
In the article, Armijo suggests that any libel or defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump Jr. is likely to produce a “Streisand effect” where even greater attention might be brought to the store. The Trump family could use the attention to make the case for their own social media platforms.
Armijo noted that the online nature of Trump’s retail platform adds an extra dynamic to the controversy. “If these were regular stores, I don’t think we’d even blink an eye … I don’t know if the fact that so such of that commerce has moved online changes that.”
Armijo is an Affiliate Fellow of the Yale Law School Information Society Project and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. He teaches and researches in the areas of the First Amendment, constitutional law, torts, administrative law, media and internet law, and international freedom of expression.
His scholarship addresses the interaction between new technologies and free speech.