Professor Larson Comments on Trump and Treason for PRI, Washington Post, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PolitiFact

Professor Carlton Larson commented for media including Public Radio International (PRI), the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , and PolitiFact regarding statements made by President Trump suggesting that it might be treasonous for Democrats to have not applauded parts of his State of the Union address.

"Refusing to applaud a politician is fully protected under the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech," Larson told the Tribune-Review. "It can't even be made a misdemeanor, much less the highest offense known to the law."

“I don’t think that Trump meant it in that serious a sense,” Larson said in an interview with PRI. “I think it was a sort of a throwaway comment. But it’s still an unhelpful and particularly nasty throwaway comment because you’re using it to accuse your political enemies” of such an egregious crime.

“Treason is different in each country of the world,” Larson explained. “But in the United States it’s defined explicitly in our Constitution as either levying war against the United States or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

Carlton Larson's research interests focus on constitutional law and legal history, with a strong emphasis on the 18th century.