The president invites football teams to break the law

You’ve heard it said many times, the First Amendment protects your right to speech, but does not protect you from any consequences of that speech, such as getting fired.

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But the Constitution is not the last word on this. Quite a few states and cities have their own free speech protections.

For example, in the City of Seattle, the law states: “Employers may not discriminate … by reason of … political ideology … [on] any matter related to employment … which does not interfere with job performance.”

So if a Seahawks player took a knee at CenturyLink Field, they’d be protected, unless it affected job performance. Michael Bennett can take a knee as long as it doesn’t cause him to miss a tackle.

Of course, regardless of what the law says, a lot of people strongly support the president’s instinct on this, to the point of actually setting fire to $99 NFL jerseys.

I would only point out that if you’re going to accept the idea of firing an employee who takes a knee, then it would also be OK to fire someone for supporting Donald Trump.

Last January, the CEO of Nike issued a passionate memo calling the Trump immigration ban “bigotry” and a violation of the company’s values. Some people wondered whether that meant employees who supported Trump could lose their jobs. Oregon law appears to prohibit that. But under the Trump NFL doctrine, they certainly could.

My advice? If you take a knee do it as an expression of religion. Then you’re protected by federal law from being fired and, depending on how the Supreme Court rules, from having to sell cakes to a gay couple.

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