Remember When Martin Luther King Was Arrested? Because Jonathan Turley Sure Doesn’t! – Above the Law

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Jonathan Turley transcended his own meticulously cultivated clown status with an epic performance yesterday. In recent years, the George Washington University Law School professor embraced the role of national joke by contradicting his own scholarship and wildly misstating basic principles of law, all in service of getting one more sweet, sweet five-minute cable news hit.

Its a lot easier to get on TV when youre giving voice to utter nonsense people want to hear than when youre constrained by legal reality. But Turley upped the game like Michael Jordan playing through the flu yesterday. And, like Jordan, it was all avoidable with a vaccine.

Turley went on Fox News to talk about the Canadian truckers running an impromptu blockade of the nations capital because they dont want to get vaccinated. After days of letting the toddlers cry about it, the Canadian government invoked emergency powers to clear the streets.

Fox wanted to talk to a Canadian legal expert ABOOT the decision. So they brought on Turley?

Turleys credentials to opine on the Canadian legal landscape run no further than mine and mine are limited to the value of tag up offsides. Can Fox News not recruit at least one Canadian professor to prostrate their academic reputation at the altar of anti-vaccination nonsense? Isnt Jordan Peterson available? Eh?

Anyway, heres what Turley offered by way of cogent legal analysis:

Wow! Imagine if overzealous law enforcement had tried to crack down the Civil Rights movement or arrested Martin Luther King? Would we even have literary classics like Letter From Birmingham Day Spa?

Actually, that was a popular joke construction and social media quickly flooded with references to Birmingham Summer Camp or Birmingham Starbucks. Others just wondered if Turley thought the letter was written from the visiting room.

Martin Luther King Jr was arrested 29 times. Many of those times, he entered the situation anticipating an arrest, knowing that civil disobedience would be met with charges. Southern law enforcement engaged in a lot of abuses like arresting King for loitering when he would show up at a courthouse to monitor another injustice but other times the whole point was to take actions reasonably expected to end in arrests. News of the arrests was part of the strategy to wake up the rest of the country.

But Turley and Fox want their precious anti-vaxxers to enjoy the benefits of escalating protests to the point of technical illegality with none of the costs. Its like Diet Protest, to compare it to a substance thats certainly way more dangerous than the vaccines theyre complaining about.

While its easy to misspeak on television, Turley cant wipe away this error as an off-the-cuff mistake. The entire frame for his commentary involves drawing parallels to the civil rights movement. This bonkers analysis stems from his prepared remarks on the subject. His rhetorical strategy from jump is to tie anti-vax hosers to the iconography of anti-segregationism.

Or more specifically to the whitewashed iconography of Martin Luther King,TM the fictionalized construct of the civil rights leader based on a childrens book mythologizing where King led a march without incident and then delivered a couple cherry-picked lines about having a dream. This revisionist King is central to Foxs editorial mission as the ever-shifting signifier that they can whip out to brand quarterbacks kneeling as too extreme and truckers blockading all access to a national capital as heroic.

But dont mistake his willing contribution to this cynical agenda for some sort of intentional action on his part. Hes soaking up and spitting out talking points with little regard for their actual truth or falsity he just knows its what the bookers on these shows want to hear and hes more than happy to give it to them for another hit. Theres nothing calculated about Turleys latest public depantsing.

Hes just an idiot.

Joe Patriceis a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free toemail any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him onTwitterif youre interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Read the original here:

Remember When Martin Luther King Was Arrested? Because Jonathan Turley Sure Doesn't! - Above the Law