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Across the country, African-American athletes have been taking a knee or raising a fist during the national anthem. They are protesting the killings of Black men and women by law enforcement officers and the systemic failure to hold anyone accountable for those killings. They have put their and on the line for doing so.

As the Supreme Court has long recognized, :

鈥淚f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.鈥�

Like others, President Trump is free to criticize the athletes for protesting. But now he has by threatening the NFL and its teams with if they don鈥檛 discipline players who exercise their First Amendment right to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

Public officials have the right to express themselves and use their celebrity to state their views. But the First Amendment prohibits them from threatening 鈥溾�� against private entities 鈥渢o stifle protected speech鈥� of individuals exercising their constitutional rights.

For example, in 2000, a minister bought billboard space in the Staten Island borough of New York City for two advertisements that offended the borough president. The borough president then to the billboard company noting that it 鈥渄erives substantial economic benefits鈥� from its billboards and calling on it to 鈥渄iscuss further the issues I have raised.鈥�

Essentially, the borough president delivered the veiled threat, 鈥淣ice billboards you鈥檝e got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to them.鈥� Unsurprisingly, the company pulled the advertisements. The minister sued, claiming a violation of his First Amendment rights.

As the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , the official鈥檚 鈥渋mplicit threat of retaliation鈥� violated the First Amendment by inducing the owner to silence the minister鈥檚 speech. The same issues are raised by President Trump鈥檚 threat to take action against the NFL or its teams if they don鈥檛 prohibit players from taking a knee.

Even if the NFL or its teams don鈥檛 ultimately suffer loss because Congress or the IRS don鈥檛 take up the president鈥檚 cudgel, that鈥檚 not the point. The point is that no governmental official, from the president on down, should ever threaten anyone with official action of any kind for the exercise of protected speech. Official threats alone can chill speech, with or without actual punishment. The bully pulpit should not be used to bully anyone into conformity, control, or censorship.

By attacking the athletes, President Trump is reading from the 鈥�Southern strategy playbook鈥� in more ways than one. He is stoking racial bigotry by demonizing them for exercising their First Amendment rights, and he is continuing the sordid tradition of silencing protests against racial injustice. For example, southern states sought to silence the civil rights movement by and awarding millions in damages against . The president鈥檚 rhetoric is following in those disgraceful footsteps.

Along with his threat to for its reporting, the president鈥檚 broadside against the NFL makes him sound like a nascent dictator, not the president of a constitutional republic. Now more than ever, that is why we need the First Amendment and why the 老澳门开奖结果 defends it.