President Donald Trump has urged NFL owners to prohibit players from protesting. 2 years ago, Trump, in a campaign rally in Alabama, urged the team owners to fire any "son of a bitch" player who protested. Our president was calling for owners to boycott players who exercised their 1st amendment right to freedom of expression. In May 2018, the NFL release a new policy requiring players to stand during the National Anthem if they are out on the field. They could sit silently in the locker room, or stand for the National Anthem on the field, so they couldn't kneel to protest.
Many legal experts argue that both Trump and the NFL have violated the 1st amendment rights to freedom of expression and silent protest, of all players who have kneeled during the Anthem. Marc Edelman, a law professor at City University of New York, said that "It's a very bold statement to sue the United States based upon alleged wrongdoing of the sitting president, and filing such a claim might make a player such as Colin Kaepernick into an even more polarizing figure". He also said, "However, based upon the pure black-letter law, a first amendment claim of this nature may have a reasonable chance to succeed".
Sources:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kaepernick-trump-first-amendment-nfl-national-anthem_n_5b15b680e4b093ac33a0f94c
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-first-amendment-and-restricting-professional-athlete-protests
I do believe that the NFL and Trump violated the 1st amendment. I feel that this was taken more seriously than other forms of protests like the Charlottesville riots. Although NFL players work for the NFL I don't think that restricting their choice to choose to stand or kneel is the best way to go to ensure that players represent their company in a positive way. I think that the NFL felt pressured by Trump and his supporters to take action in the way Trump had suggested.
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ReplyDeleteI do think that peaceful protests are 100% protected under the first amendment. To lose your job due to simply peaceful protesting would be a shame for not only yourself, but the rest of the football community. For Trump to say he would "fire any 'son of a bitch' player who protested", is violating their first amendment. I hope the supreme court looks into this case, and reassures the public that he cannot do that to any player who participates in peaceful protests.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting to me because of the fact that I had never heard about this. But yes Trump has violated a lot of things so I truly believe that he violated the First Amendment and that protest should have been protected by the first amendment due to the freedom of speech specially since it was a peaceful protest no one was being harmed. I believe that Trump did wrong in saying those things and basically telling them not to protest because they might have lost there jobs due to what Kiera stated above its something incorrect and Trump had no right to fire no one for a peaceful protest.
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