老澳门开奖结果

On Sept. 24, Milo Smith took his daughter to an Indianapolis Colts鈥� game against the Cleveland Browns. Though the Colts won that day 鈥� a tragically rare occurrence this year 鈥� Smith left the game offended. During the national anthem, a group of players on both teams took a knee in reaction to two days earlier, where he called protesting players sons of bitches who should be fired by team ownership.

"To me when they take a knee during the national anthem, it鈥檚 not respecting the national anthem or our country,鈥� Smith the Indianapolis Star newspaper. 鈥淥ur government isn鈥檛 perfect, but it's still the best country in the world and I think we need to be respectful of it."

But Smith isn鈥檛 just an ordinary Colts' fan. He鈥檚 a state representative, and he couldn鈥檛 sit idly by while the Colts players knelt during the Star-Spangled Banner. Instead, he鈥檚 promised to introduce legislation that would force the team to refund the ticket price to any fan offended by a Colts player protesting during the national anthem.

If passed, however, that law would be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

I, too, attended that Colts game in September with my daughter. When Colts players kneeled during the national anthem, we and many others understood them to be protesting our nation鈥檚 systemic racism that manifests in violent and soul-crushing ways. Such protests are undeniably political speech, and political speech is our most protected and important form of expression.

But Rep. Smith doesn鈥檛 seem to get this. Instead, his proposed law is an absurd assault on the First Amendment because it tackles, if you will, political speech of the players by exerting economic pressure on their employer, the Indianapolis Colts. The First Amendment protects each of us from government controlling what we say, and it certainly protects businesses and their employees from government regulation that seeks to discourage speech based on its content.

And make no mistake, that is Rep. Smith鈥檚 intent.

Since he doesn鈥檛 like the message the players are sending with their silent protest, he wants to use the power of government to apply pressure to shut the protests down. What鈥檚 next? Regulatory fines instead of piano music for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when actors go on too long about politics during their Oscar acceptance speeches?

The Colts are a private business. The players work for a private business. And the fans support that private business. If fans are upset, let them work it out with their team by refusing to purchase tickets or watch on TV. That is, by the way, how some of the 44 million viewers of Oscars expressed their disagreement when things got political at last year鈥檚 Oscars. According to , two-thirds of Trump voters just changed the channel.

If Rep. Smith and others like him don鈥檛 like watching players peacefully protest racial injustice, then they should simply stop going to and watching Colts鈥� games. Government, however, should stay out of it.