Urging the government to assassinate someone vs. urging others todo that

[Sanford Levinson]

 For what it's worth (and I'm not sure the amount), Robertson is most
definitely not, in Holmes's language, a "puny anonymity," which means,
among other things, that some Americans may believe that if our gutless
government won't do what he says, then they should step in and do it
themselves.  I.e., his speech is at least as dangerous as that of Eugene
V. Debs, which was, empirically, more dangerous than that of the hapless
Jacob Schenck of (I don't even know his first name) Abrams.  Perhaps
this is an occasion for the President to give a lecture on civil
liberties and note that what is great about our country is that we allow
all sorts of hateful and objectionable speech, including advocating
assassination of the presidents of other countries.  I.e., Brandenburg
has certainly supplanted Debs, thank goodness.  (So the ultimate
question is whether Robertson would be protected if he advocated the
assassination of our own President and, if not, why not.)

sandy