ESPN Exercises First Amendment Rights

Hank Williams, Jr., recently lost out in the marketplace of ideas, at least as far as his employment/royalties are concerned. He, however, feels that his First Amendment right to free speech was trampled. For those who remain blissfully ignorant: Hank compared Obama to Hitler. He was then astonished when ESPN decided to stop playing his Monday Night Football theme song.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-06/entertainment/showbiz_williams-football_1_hank-williams-holocaust-survivor-abc-and-espn?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ

I know I'm not the first to make this point, but this common misperception of the First Amendment irks me enough that I don't care:

A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL SUCH AS A CORPORATION CANNOT VIOLATE YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ABSENT NEAR-BIZARRE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Thank you for excusing the caps lock. There's a fabulous quote from Larry Tribe: "There are two ways, and two ways only, in which an ordinary private citizen, acting under her own steam and under color of no law, can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave somebody . . . . The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control laws.” Lawrence H. Tribe, How To Violate the Constitution Without Really Trying, 12 Const. Commentary 217, 220 (1995).

No, Hank, ESPN didn't violate your First Amendment rights. Ironically, ESPN merely exercised its own free speech rights. I'm so very sorry that ESPN's voice (pocket, really, but whatever) is louder than yours.