Here's what I would do: Trump is ordered to write a formal apology letter to the clerk in which he disavows the spurious claims outlaid in his post, he must record himself reading the letter and post it to his website for at least 2 months. Or he can go to jail for contempt of court.
This way he either does something he definitely does not want to do (admit fault) or go to jail and because he 'holds the keys to his cell' so to speak, his claims of being wrongfully imprisoned would be hollow.
Unfortunately I believe there is a long case history that prevents courts from forcing them to say things as it violates the 1st amendment. Similar to forcing engineers to write code that puts "backdoors" into security systems.
I think there is precedent for apologizing as an alternative to punishment, but I'm no expert so you may well be correct.
Just look at Powell, she must write a letter of apology, but the difference there is she took a deal and agreed to it vs being forced into it I guess?
Right, my thought is that the apology would be in lieu of going to jail for contempt, so he isn't being forced to apologize, he violated a court order and is being punished, he could then choose to forgo punishment by apologizing.
I'm fascinated by your choice of analogy. Do you have a story to tell?
Here's what I would do: Trump is ordered to write a formal apology letter to the clerk in which he disavows the spurious claims outlaid in his post, he must record himself reading the letter and post it to his website for at least 2 months. Or he can go to jail for contempt of court.
This way he either does something he definitely does not want to do (admit fault) or go to jail and because he 'holds the keys to his cell' so to speak, his claims of being wrongfully imprisoned would be hollow.
Unfortunately I believe there is a long case history that prevents courts from forcing them to say things as it violates the 1st amendment. Similar to forcing engineers to write code that puts "backdoors" into security systems.
I think there is precedent for apologizing as an alternative to punishment, but I'm no expert so you may well be correct.
Just look at Powell, she must write a letter of apology, but the difference there is she took a deal and agreed to it vs being forced into it I guess?
Right, my thought is that the apology would be in lieu of going to jail for contempt, so he isn't being forced to apologize, he violated a court order and is being punished, he could then choose to forgo punishment by apologizing.
I'm fascinated by your choice of analogy. Do you have a story to tell?
Not my story but the US government has tried a number of times to force engineers at Google/Apple to write backdoors into their encryption in order to "fight the terrorists". They've been prevented from doing that on 1st amendment grounds. Example: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/encryption-and-speech-surplus-building-backdoor-to-first-amendment
I think he literally couldn't bring himself to make the apology, though. He's way too much of a narcissist.
His claim of being wrongfully imprisoned is already hollow, his supporters are going to believe it regardless of the hoops
Also not apologizing/admitting fault is a point of price for them