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The Texas House gave preliminary approval on Monday to the so-called Star Spangled Banner Protection Act, a conservative-backed bill that would require any professional sports teams with contracts with the Texas state government to play the national anthem before the start of a game.
Senate Bill 4 was passed on a voice vote, with no changes by the House. It is expected to receive a record vote and final passage on Tuesday and head to Gov. Greg Abbotts desk.
House Republicans defeated several proposed amendments along partisan lines, signalling more division on the issue in the lower chamber than was seen in the Senate, which passed the bill last month with overwhelming bipartisan support and only two votes against it.
Athletes protesting the national anthem has become a divisive and partisan issue since NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling in 2016 to protest police brutality against Black Americans.
In February, Patrick named the bill one of his legislative priorities after Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, stopped playing the anthem prior to home games, which went largely unnoticed during the pandemic with no fans in the stands.
That decision quickly drew the ire of conservative lawmakers in the state.
Sell the franchise & some Texas Patriots will buy it, Patrick said in a tweet at the time. We ARE the land of free & the home of the brave.
In a public response to the outcry condemning his decision, Cuban expressed support for the anthem, but he said team executives also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them. The NBA later said all teams would play the anthem before games.
During Mondays debate on the House floor, opponents questioned the constitutionality of a law that they said ties funding to free speech by threatening negative action against sports teams that choose to express their opinions by declining to play the anthem.
Once again, were carrying legislation that is openly and aggressively unconstitutional, said state Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who unsuccessfully tried to turn the bill into a resolution, allowing the House to take a stand in favor of the anthem without the force of law.
The bills House sponsor, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said the bill does not violate free speech because teams can still choose not to play the anthem and forgo the funding and business relationship with the state.
Its very simple. If they do not want to play the national anthem, they dont take the tax dollars, Burrows said. If were going to go ahead and subsidize with hard-earned American dollars the sporting facilities and the teams in the different ways that I think is articulated in this bill, then this would apply.
Attempts by Democrats to require teams to play both the Star-Spangled Banner and Lift Every Voice and Sing, or to choose between them, were shut down along partisan lines.
Lift Every Voice and Sing is commonly known as the Black National Anthem, said Rep. Jasmine Felicia Crockett, D-Dallas, who authored one of the amendments.
I dont even understand why we would feel the need to force someone into singing any song, Crockett said. But if we are going to force people to sing a song, we should at least be mindful of the people playing on these teams, the people that are actually in the stands supporting these teams.
Burrows opposed the amendments with the deepest amount of respect to my friend and colleague because he wanted to avoid any changes to the bill, which would slow its progress to the governors desk during the final week of the legislative session.
Go here to read the rest:
Texas House votes to yank state funding from sports teams that don't play national anthem at games - The Texas Tribune
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- Opinion | Columbia, Free Speech and the Coddling of the American Right - The New York Times - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- TikTok raises free speech concerns on bill passed by US House that may ban app - Voice of America - VOA News - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- The Right Must Avoid the Left's Free Speech Pitfalls Minding The Campus - Minding The Campus - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
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- Harrison Ford Called 'Free Palestine' Supporters 'Force of Nature' in Speech? - Snopes.com - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Elon Musk to fund new First Amendment campaign to combat 'relentless attacks on free speech' - Fox News - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- TikTok raises free speech concerns on bill passed by US House that may ban app - New York Post - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Navigating The Murky Waters Of Antisemitism, Free Speech, And Academic Freedom - Forbes - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
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- UC Virtual Conference Centers Free Speech and Civil Rights Amid Ongoing Tensions on College Campuses - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Free speech freeze-up | D.H. Robinson - The Critic - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Will Columbias law-school dean learn the law of free speech? - JNS.org - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
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- TikTok uses free speech card to save itself from US ban, will it be enough? - Hindustan Times - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Settlement Reached in Free Speech Case at Temecula Valley Unified - ACLU of Southern California - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- USC canceled its valedictorian speech: What the university got wrong. - Slate - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- A free speech fiasco united the far-right here's why they remain divided - POLITICO Europe - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- US TikTok Ban Bill Would 'Trample' On Free Speech Rights Of 170M Americans, Says Social Media Giant - Benzinga - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- X marks the spot where free speech comes at a cost - Sydney Morning Herald - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
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- As Texas students clash over Israel-Hamas war, Gov. Greg Abbott orders colleges to revise free speech policies - The Texas Tribune - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Opinion | The Debate Over Free Speech, Disinformation and Censorship - The New York Times - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- VCU one of the top campuses in the country for free speech, advocacy group says - Axios - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
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- Gov. Abbott orders Texas universities to revise free speech policies to combat antisemitism - The UTD Mercury - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
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- CAIR-Texas Condemns Gov. Abbott's Anti-Palestinian Executive Order as Attack on Free Speech (Video) - - Council on American-Islamic Relations - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Dissent: When It Comes To Free Speech, the Editorial Board Is All Talk. | Opinion - Harvard Crimson - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Gov. Abbott calls for universities to update free speech policies, discipline violators to address antisemitism on campuses - The Daily Texan - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- The Times Ed Board picks a confusing fight against the Emerald City Ride, free speech - Seattle Bike Blog - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Trump's Free Speech Defense on Trial in Georgia Election Interference Case - Hoodline - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Convicting Julian Assange Would Mean the End of Free Speech - The American Conservative - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Column: Banning TikTok is a blow to free speech - Redmond Spokesman - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
- Free Speech Is Under Such Threat In Canada It Would Make Orwell Blush - Forbes - March 29th, 2024 [March 29th, 2024]
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- Kevin Rennie: Jaw-dropping attack on free speech and assembly in a CT town. It hurts us all. - Hartford Courant - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- Chemerinsky: Navigating Free Speech on Campus, A First Amendment Perspective - The Collegian online - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
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- POLL: 69% of Americans believe country on wrong track on free speech - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
- In Defense of Free Speech and the Mission of the University - Public Discourse - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
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- Supreme Court to Decide How the First Amendment Applies to Social Media - The New York Times - March 2nd, 2024 [March 2nd, 2024]
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- British Universities Are Repressing Free Speech on Palestine - Jacobin magazine - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- The Future of Academic Freedom - The New Yorker - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- "College Is All About Curiosity. And That Requires Free Speech." - Reason - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- Palestine and the crisis of free speech on college campuses - The Real News Network - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]
- College Is All About Curiosity. And That Requires Free Speech. - The New York Times - January 29th, 2024 [January 29th, 2024]