The constitution protects the people’s right to assemble and express their opinion freely. The protests were widely criticized by the American public, especially recently due to president Donald Trump’s recent comments. He said that these players were being unlawful and should be jailed or fired. This is a reoccurring problem with …show more content…
Notably, Trump, our president said: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” This however is wrong; the American people are standing up for Blacks and are allowed to disrespect the flag just as well as the national anthem. In Supreme Court decision Texas vs Johnson in 1989, the Supreme Court decided that it was Constitutional to burn the American flag because it is a form of free speech. Also in supreme court case Snyder vs Phelps, people were performing disrespectful peaceful protests at several marine’s funeral. Both of these fall under the 1st Amendment. This shows that no matter how disrespectful a form of “free speech” or “peaceably protesting”, the NFL players are still legally protected by the federal