Republican Lawmaker DROPS NUKE On Kneeling NFL Players

by Sierra Marlee | December 29, 2017 12:58 am

Many conservatives in the United States have just about had it with the kneeling NFL players and it would appear that Republican lawmakers are feeling the same way. In fact, one has proposed that the Indianapolis Colts would have to refund the tickets of anyone who left the football game as a result of the players kneeling.

Rep. Milo Smith (R-Columbus) claims that his bill would cause players who feel disrespected by the National Anthem protests to receive a refund for the cost of their ticket after leaving the game.

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“To me when they take a knee during the national anthem, it’s not respecting the national anthem or our country,” he said. “Our government isn’t perfect, but it’s still the best country in the world and I think we need to be respectful of it.”

But Jane Henegar from the Indiana ACLU thinks that something like this would be a violation of the Constitution.

“In effect by passing the law, government would be weighing in…and fining political speech by the Indianapolis Colts,” Henegar stated. “It seems like the worst thing that could happen is government weighing in and trying to control in any direction the political speech of private actors.”

It should be noted that this doesn’t place a restriction on their freedom to kneel. It’s not threatening them with jail time, so he believes that it’s not breaking any laws or violating the Constitution.

On one hand, I understand that the financial responsibility to refund a dissatisfied customer falls on the business and in this case the football team. However, when you buy a football ticket in this climate, you are doing so knowing that there is the risk that one or more of the participating players may kneel during the anthem. That’s just common sense. If you don’t want to see that, then you probably shouldn’t go. Save your money, right?

On the other hand, if the team doesn’t want to lose money and be forced to pay, they may force their players to square up and stop being disrespectful, lest the money come out of their own paychecks. I’d say that this is more of a business argument than a constitutional argument. I could be wrong about that and I’m not a Constitutional lawyer, so I wouldn’t even begin to know how something like that would shake out in court, however, it wouldn’t need to get that far if the coaches would step up and handle this.