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The Center for American Progress reports
Last month, the NFL announced a new policy for its players during the national anthem: Players are permitted to stay in the locker room during the anthem, but if they go out onto the field during it, they must stand. If any of the players takes a knee, the team will be fined.
Soon afterwards, a Wall Street Journal report confirmed what most have long suspected: That President Donald Trump's public outrage about NFL players protesting police brutality and systemic racism during the national anthem at football games heavily influenced NFL owners to change the rule, and discouraged them from signing players who would protest.
It's all terrible news for those in favor of free speech and peaceful protest, and for those against white nationalism and police brutality.
However, Mark Geragos, the lawyer representing Kaepernick in his collusion lawsuit against the NFL, [...] believes [...] that Trump's direct influence over NFL owners on this issue violates federal law. U.S. Code 227 [which] says that members of Congress or the executive branch cannot "wrongfully influence a private entity's employment decision ... solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation".
A few revelations from the last couple of weeks strongly support Geragos' case here, and it's important to remember that Geragos knows much more about the case than we do--he has taken the depositions of more than a dozen NFL owners, while the public only knows about the depositions that have leaked.
[...] Of course, influencing the private hiring decisions of a company isn't the only part of U.S. Code [227] that needs to be proved; it would also have to be shown that Trump did it for partisan political purposes.
That sounds trickier to prove, but in this case, that's not necessarily true. First of all, Trump's comments were made at a political rally supporting an Alabama Republican candidate for US Senate--an expressly partisan environment. And according to the WSJ, Trump told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in private conversations that the issue was a "winning" one for him.
Previous: NFL: New National Anthem Rule; NY Jets CEO: Break the Rule and I'll Pay the Fine
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @01:33AM (2 children)
Every time Donald J. Trump Sr tries to show how big he is, he just reveals, yet again, how he doesn't measure up.
A generation ago, there was a SoCal guy who got in dutch with the city gov't because of his ridiculously sized flag and flagpole. [google.com]
The damned thing made so much noise that the neighbors couldn't stand it.
...and his thing wasn't done out of patriotism either.
It too was done for commercial reasons.
(He was in the big-flag-selling business.) [google.com]
It sounds like you didn't even get one of his top-of-the-line products.
Heh. Old joke:
The USAians wanted a propaganda coup so they ordered a bunch of product from a Soviet condom manufacturer.
The dimensions specified were enormous.
The Soviets didn't bat an eye.
They filled the order, stamped the boxes "Medium", and shipped them.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday June 04 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
Why do you keep linking to Google search pages rather than just a single website? You can't be afraid somebody will bitch about your choice of sources?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @08:24PM
1) It shows that multiple sources have covered the story.
2) Some Soylentils get the point just by hovering over the link.
3) I'm lazy.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]