It is hard to believe that First Amendment protection for free speech would be a cornerstone of a president’s defense to incessant lies, mobilizing pressure on Congress to act unconstitutionally, inciting a mob to violence, and dereliction of duty as violence ensued — but Donald Trump’s lawyers are making such an argument. I was pleased to join a large group of constitutional scholars and lawyers pushing back. The obvious arguments are made in a letter and summarized in the New York Times piece today about it.