It Could Happen Here - Were Macklemore’s First Amendment Rights Violated?

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Kevin Foster speaks with Mo Meltzer-Cohen, a law professor at CUNY School of Law, about Macklemore being booted from the Ed Sheeran tour and the First Amendment implications.    Sources: https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dc_bH4_N1FN/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-robert-kraft-statement-1235626352/ https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ed-sheerans-shows-stadium-owned-pro-israel-robert-kraft-cancelled https://www.instagram.com/p/DdRdsy0m2HK/?img_index=4 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-statement-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-1235626135/ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ngmblAp7y_I https://www.lucasoilstadium.com/tours-stadium-info/background-history/ https://blankfamilyofbusinesses.com/company/amb-sports-entertainment/ https://raymondjamesstadium.com/tampasportsauthority https://www.tampasportsauthority.com/tsa-about https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/ye/2026/raymond-james-stadium-tampa-fl-33745801.html https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/24/ut-texas-austin-palestine-protest-ruling/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to Iqadabin here. I'm Kevin Foster, and today we're separating the art from the artist, specifically taking McElmore's solid political takes and isolating them from his, let's just say, iconic bars like, what up, I got a big cock. For those who aren't caught up, McElmore was touring with Ed Sheeran not long ago before he was removed from the tour for espousing pro-Palestine. statements on stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Specifically, he said free Palestine a few times and thanks students at Columbia University for kicking off the encampments movement in spring of

24. Those students inspired his song Hins Hall, the title student protesters gave Columbia's Hamilton Hall, named after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old who was brutally murdered by the Israeli defense forces in Gaza in January of 2024. In a beautiful, case of leopards eating faces, Ed Shearin's entire lineup of opening acts and his backing band withdrew from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore. In his next performance, Shearon gave a sort of apology speech to the crowd, reading off a teleprompter in which he did not use the words genocide or Palestinian. Rather than focusing on that, due to the outstanding negative response to McElmore's statements from Zionist billionaires, I think it's

worth listening to some of what he actually said on stage. Here's a clip from his Instagram. To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. So I say Free Palestine. I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say free Congo, free Sudan, free all people in America living in fear over this terrorist organization ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free. This song is called Hens Hall.

Some deeply frightening stuff in there, at least for Robert Kraft, the pro-Israel billionaire owner of the New England Patriots football team, and Jolette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, near Boston, where McElmore was set to appear on tour with Shearin. Kraft was not happy with McElmore's support of Palestinian equal rights on stage, and he confirmed to Rolling Stone that he barred McElmore from appearing at the Boston shows over, quote, recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Shearin's shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive, and hurtful to the Jewish community, unquote.

Despite McElmore's clear calls for equality and peace, Kraft felt his presence at Gillette Stadium would stymie the supposed goal of providing a, quote, welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that all events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech, unquote. Funnily enough, those shows ended up getting canceled anyway due to severe weather warnings. But Kraft allegedly did not stop there. According to a post by Macklemore following his removal from the tour, Shearin apparently said that Kraft had rallied other stadium owners with an ultimatum.

Quoting from that post, if McElmore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues, unquote. Messina Touring Group, the promoter of the U.S. portion of Sheeran's tour, said in a statement that they were notified by venues from the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they would not allow a concert to take place with Mclemore in the lineup. Obviously, this represents a serious affront to freedom of speech, something that is far from new on the matter of Palestine. As of yet, Kraft has not discussed or denied the allegations of mounting this pressure campaign against the rapper. In response to the controversy, basically everyone and their mother chimed in, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,

who pretty well lays out the real focus of this episode. This is about how just a handful of... stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue, in this case the genocide in Gaza, but it doesn't stop there. It could be speaking out about AI. It could be speaking out about any issues. Here's where things get interesting. Rolling Stone lists seven stadium venues that allegedly objected to McElmore's inclusion in the tour, and of those seven, five are publicly owned by either the city, county, or state in which they reside. I could spend quite a lot of time talking about how I think Ed Sheeran is a coward, how it is a political statement to fold in favor

of genocide deniers, but what I'm far more interested in is the First Amendment implications of craft's alleged actions and the ways in which billionaires are able to wield authority over our rights, even through public institutions and capital. To discuss this in depth, I've interviewed friend of the pod Mo Meltzer Cohen, a law professor at CUNY School of Law, experienced in defense of people targeted on the basis of First Amendment protected beliefs, identities, and association. And let's dive right into that. I'm kind of wondering if you can just tell me, from what you know about this case, what do you make of a billionaire kind of organizing a censorship campaign like this? Have you seen similar things in different contexts around free speech? Well, certainly.

And they're all manner of ways in which coercive social or economic pressure is brought to bear on different people or different events or forums in order to constrain the expressive conduct of different people or different groups. There's certainly nothing at all that is unique or unusual. about that. I think what's important to recognize before we really get too deep into this is when we're talking about free speech principles, we can talk about free speech as or free expression as a shared cultural value. But the First Amendment only applies to the government, right? So when we're talking about censorship, we need to be clear about whether we're talking about a private individual or company refusing to platform particular speech, which is certainly censorship, but it isn't government censorship of the kind that the First Amendment is concerned with, right?

Yeah. The First Amendment as a legal principle, a set of legal principles, is a constraint on the power of the government to censor political speech or to censor free expression, right? It's a constraint on the power of the state to restrict people's ability to speak, to associate with each other, to believe for. freely. And so I think what's interesting about this particular situation that you've raised is that, you know, an event planning company or a private theater or Robert Kraft himself as an individual are certainly at liberty to decline to give a platform to any speech that they find offensive. Robert Kraft takes umbrage at somebody's music. He is under no obligation to subsidize it, to support it, to give it a platform.

But you've pointed out that some of these stadiums at which these performances were scheduled to occur are owned by cities, are municipally owned or are owned by the state. I think one of them you said is owned by the state of Florida. Yeah, so I can like dive into a little bit of the details on that. There's specifically this the stadiums that are in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Indianapolis, and Arlington, Texas. They're not all operated by public entities, but they are all owned by public entities between, you know, city, county, and state. But in the examples where they are privately operated, it's like the Atlanta Falcons or the Philadelphia Eagles. But that, you know, I reached out to these different. groups. And in some cases, they tried to push it onto the operators. Like in Philadelphia, they told me to reach out to the Eagles for Lincoln Financial Stadium. They did not respond to my emails. And then I had this in loop. I think it was Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. They did actually respond. But that was from the Capital Improvement Board for Marion County, Indiana. And they said, quote, we can confirm Messina Turing's announcement that McElmore

will not be performing at the upcoming show. And then they said Lucas Oil stadium is a public facility and as such as content neutral, which, you know, I had to follow up and ask about that. And they didn't respond to that, but it's a bit silly when they're sort of barring a performer. But like you said, where I feel like this was especially sort of troubling was in Tampa. They're both owned publicly and it's operated by the Tampa Sports Authority, who did not respond to my request for comment. And that seems to create this sort of complex situation. I don't know exactly what all the contracts are behind the scenes and who gets to control these things. But if it's a publicly owned and operated facility, I mean, does that raise some concerns?

It sure does. And so it's interesting that they reached back out to you that Lucas Oil Stadium said, we are content neutral. So that's a legal term of art. So let's keep out a little bit. Yeah. So as I said, the First Amendment is a constraint on the point. power of the government to dictate speech, right? It says the government cannot be the arbiter of expression. And so if you have a stadium that is owned by the government, presumably that

forum is a public forum in the same way that a public park would be considered a public forum, and that's legally significant. Why is that legally significant? Because in a, what's called a traditional public forum, land an area that is owned by the government, well, the government is permitted to impose constraints on the time, place, and manner of expression. Those constraints, first of all, they have to be reasonable constraints. And those constraints may not be imposed on the basis of content or viewpoint discrimination, right? So that's what they're saying when Lucas Oil Stadium says, Lucas Oil Stadium is content neutral. It's a very inelegant way of saying we aren't discriminating on the basis of viewpoint.

So constraints may be imposed, but they have to be content neutral. They can't be based on viewpoint discrimination. They have to be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government purpose or a significant government interest. And there are a range of things that are understood to be legitimate or valid significant government interests, right? They are things like public safety, making sure that school children's educational activities are not disrupted, right? Making sure that people have access to and from public buildings, right? These would be considered valid government interests. Now, that issue sort of points up the fact that with respect to stadiums in particular, there are frequently events held at stadiums where

in the wake of those events, typically sporting events, there are threats to public safety. There are very often extremely foreseeable incidences of boisterousness, shall we say, after, you know, the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup. You know, publicly owned stadiums are not exercising their right to impose reasonable constraints. on the time, place, and manner of expression by shutting down the Super Bowl, right, in anticipation of what they could reasonably expect to be rowdiness. I think Mom Dani would be recalled if he tried to stop the Knicks games over public safety concerns. I don't think Mom Dany would ever do such a thing. No, I know. They won.

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Gold bars of ingots. It could be worth half a billion. And they would have made more if it hadn't been for one. one courageous cop. No, Dad, don't. You're going to need all of us. I'll call you when I can. Frank, be careful. Underground Zero, starring Steve Sharipa, Ray Abruzzo, and me, Michael Imperioly.

Would you be willing to see your family go to pieces? Some ways it already has. Listen to Underground Zero on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The NFL never stops and neither does its newest podcast. The NFL Report. hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano. It is your home for everything football. Williams, drifting, sprinted for space, in all times of trouble, put it up for next.

We're tapping the biggest news stories, giving you expert analysis, fantasy previews, game picks, and more. We fly around every single play. We dominate every single play. Want to hear from the league's top stars, ahead of the biggest matchups, we've got you covered. They're a really good football team. We've got to have all hands on deck. Join me at an All-Star cast of analysts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes of the NFL Report Monday through Friday all season long. Listen to the NFL Report podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In any event, it is really important to understand that it is permissible for the government to impose constraints on expression.

They have to be reasonable constraints. they have to be content neutral, right, not discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. They have to be narrowly tailored, meaning they can't just be, okay, we're going to shut down everything because we have some concern, some speculative concern that like maybe there's going to be some rowdy behavior. And finally, and critically, those constraints have to leave open what are called ample alternative channels of communication. Right. So absolutely canceling a performance would not leave open ample alternative channels of communication, right? Yeah. And it's not clear what the public interest is in this case because, you know, there are exceptions.

There are things that fall outside the zone of First Amendment protections. And there are things like fighting words, you know, hate speech, true threats. but it's very clear that criticism of Israel, support for Palestine, solidarity with Palestine, those things are not hate speech, right? Criticism of the political ideology of Zionism. These are not instances of anti-Semitic hate speech, right? Yeah. And so it's, you know, however offensive Robert Kraft or anyone else might find solidarity with Palestine to be, it is not speech of a kind that is exempted from the protections of the First Amendment. So, you know, if, again, if there's a private event company or a privately owned stadium that says,

we don't want to have McElmore play, they're at liberty to do that, right? They can make that decision. Yeah. What we can't have, or at least what deserves interrogation, what deserves a, a serious inquiry, is a publicly owned government-run entity, shutting down speech at the behest of a wealthy, powerful individual, not on the basis of needing to impose a reasonable constraint or a reasonable restriction on the time, place, or manner of expression based on a content-neutral analysis that is narrowly tailored to serve some significant government interest

while also leaving open ample alternative channels of communication, right? I am concerned about a public stadium bowing to that kind of pressure, particularly in light of the fact that Kanye West can perform freely. and Kanye West is pretty openly. This is a sort of a, not even really a side note, but Kanye West performed multiple times at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa at the end of June. And, you know, while the set list FM doesn't say that he performed his song, Kyle Hitler, that I guess came out in 2025,

it's hard to believe where we're at sometimes. But it's the open hypocrisy of that is just a, astounding, but... Well, it's never been about anti-Semitism, right? I mean, just as a side-side note, there are more Christian Zionists in the United States than there are Jews in the entire world, and they are explicitly motivated by explicitly anti-Semitic goals,

right? One of which is to create a mass exodus of Jewish people from the so-called, you know, global north. Oh, God. And the other of which is to hasten the apocalypse, at which point, according to the Christian Zionist eschatology, some Jews will become Christian, and remaining Jews will go to hell. So this is not and has never been about anti-Semitism. It is about criticism of Israel. It is about solidarity with Palestine.

Now, you know, we're looking. at this very sort of niche and narrow issue of what are the implications for the First Amendment when we have a municipally owned or a government-owned event space and a performer is prevented from or forbidden from performing in that space clearly on the basis of what would typically be understood to be protected speech. Why does it matter? I mean, just to clarify, I am not an expert, certainly,

in whatever kinds of leases or contract arrangements there are between these cities or states and, you know, third-party event planning. Yeah. Which, you know, if there's enough space in between, you know, the stadium, and the decision being made potentially by a private third party, that might vitiate some of those First Amendment protections.

Yeah. Right? I don't know because I don't know enough of the facts on the ground there. And nevertheless, I think it is really important for us to address ourselves to this question. Am I a McElmore fan? I, you know, not particularly. I mean, he's fine. But my concern is not with a wealthy and powerful recording artist.

My concern is that we look at this situation with McElmore, and I think it is obscuring a whole range of threats to free expression for the rest of us, right? Because, no, is anyone going to be real world? worried about McElmore's welfare. No, he's fine, to his credit, by his own admission. He's not suffering. My concern is not with McElmore not being allowed to play a show. My concern is with the implications for the rest of us when we're allowing these kinds of incursions into First Amendment protections. And I think this is such an interesting case because the fact that it's McElmore is actually functioning, I think, to camouflage what those threats are.

Yeah. Right? Because we're also focused on the fact that it's this wealthy, powerful guy that we're missing the fact that the First Amendment can't be mobilized to protect his free expression. how else might we see these end runs around constitutional protections for the rest of us? I think there are a lot of things that are protected by the First Amendment that aren't necessarily legible to us as First Amendment-protected beliefs associations or activities, right? Because we often will think about things that are First Amendment protected as being like the right to go. to a particular kind of religious institution,

or the right to go to a protest, right? But a lot of the most important First Amendment case law deals with things like, are multiple adolescents allowed to hang out on the public sidewalk together without getting arrested, right? Does it constitute probable cause of unlawful? conduct for there to be more than two black children hanging out together on the stoop.

Yeah. Right? That's not the kind of First Amendment protected activity that most people think about. It's not the top of mind when you say First Amendment, right? I think people are thinking about, you know, people like marching against the war in Vietnam. Yeah. But we do many things every day that are protected by the First Amendment, not just, you you know, posting on the internet, not just, you know, having privacy with respect to who we're

calling, right, being permitted to make phone calls to anyone we want. Like, a birthday party is a First Amendment protected gathering, right? Our right to assemble. Our right to free association, right? And so having an incursion into those protections, any incursion into those protections, has implications for all of those other things. And if we stop paying attention and we say, oh, this is sort of a punchline, right? Oh, McElmore is being canceled by the rich right-wing stadium owners. And we don't look at the fact that there is a public performance that is being canceled by potentially the government. We're missing a whole range of risks because what's at stake is not McElmore's career.

What's at stake is the ability of all of the rest of us to freely associate, to petition the government, to believe the things that we believe, without being censored, without being punished for doing so. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name, new album,

two exclusive shows. So IHR Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood pole. Lights, hotel, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Listen to Iheart new music for 10 minutes a day on the Iheart radio app. And click enter.

Every day you listen is another chance to win. Stream Miley's new album, Bass Persuades, today. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic

interest and they complained about the very thing they're receiving. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going to scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. 12 seats.

those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the south now. And download Roland Martin Unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. Last year, we had Mike McDonald,

Sam Darnold on the field after the game. But that was last year. If you're a football sicko like me, NFL Daily is your kind of show. It is in the name NFL Daily, fresh content in your feed every day all season long. Matthew Stafford coming off his MVP season. On a dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford. Big time trades that shake up the NFL. A.J. Brown is loose.

And of course, those Seahawks trying to run it back and win another Lombardi trophy. The Seahawks win. Super Bowl 60. They are bringing the Lombardi back to the Northwest. If it's happening on a football field, NFL Daily will cover it. Listen to NFL Daily on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez.

And I'm October Gonzalez. But you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce, and all the nitty-gritty stuff. if we all think about, but just don't say out loud. I hate that job. You're probably just going to meet with some rich guy, and he's going to whisk you away, and I'll never see you again.

Well, this is awkward. Would you say a D-less actor? D? I don't even know there's this thing as D. No, no, no. I mean, like... Can't even get on the C-list? Like, I'm not even an average.

I'm not even passing. I'm failing. Listen to no safe words with October and Tony Gonzalez, part of My Culture Podcast Network. Available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Whether you're stepping up to the starting line of a marathon or just trying to take the first step toward a big, scary goal, the conversation in your head is usually the same.

Do I have what it takes? I'm Emily Abadi, and on hurdle with Emily Abadi, we dive into the grit, vulnerability, and mindset that fuels our greatest comebacks. I talk to elite athletes, Olympic champions, industry change makers, and everyday runners about how they face self-doubt, redefine success, and keep moving forward when life gets heavy. I'd just love to say I never know who's watching. So you want to make sure you, you through and through, and you just stay true to who you are. Yeah, your path might change because different things come on your path to disrupt it, but it's just putting you on a new path, and the skills, you have to have faith

at the skills that you've learned and developed over time are going to continue to bring you success. When the world is burning and crashing around you, will you still say fight for your dream? Will you still say it's possible? Will you still believe you're a good person? Can you still see the brighter side of tomorrow? It's motivation, real talk, and practical wisdom for life on and off the run. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Michael and Perioli. I want to tell you about my new podcast, Underground Zero.

It's about what happened in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. We're looking at the opportunity of a lifetime for us and the other families. While the world was mourning, five powerful New York families saw an opportunity. The debris supposed to go to the city-owned salvage yard, and some of it will. They would go on to make millions of dollars. What's in the tunnels? Gold bars of Engitz. It could be worth half a billion.

And they would have made more if it hadn't been for one courageous cop. No, Dad, don't. You're going to need all of us. I'll call you when I can. Frank, be careful. Underground Zero, starring Steve Sharipa, Ray Abruzzo, and me, Michael Imperioly. Would you be willing to see your family go to pieces? Some ways it already has. Listen to Underground Zero on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The NFL never stops and neither does its newest podcast. The NFL report hosted by

me, Andrew Siciliano. It is your home for everything football. Williams, drifting, sprinting for space. We're tapping the biggest news stories, giving you expert analysis, fantasy previews, game picks, and more. We fly around every single play. We dominate every single play. Want to hear from the league's top stars ahead of the biggest matchups? We've got you covered. They're a really good football team. We've got to have all hands on deck. Join me at an all-star cast of analysts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes of the NFL report Monday through Friday all season long.

podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. One of the other things that deserves to be said here is one of the reasons that this is a little bit confusing and that the waters are so muddied is this issue that I referred to a minute ago with respect to these publicly owned stadiums leasing out additional authority to these third-party. companies, right? Yeah. Or private and which are as non-government entities are not subject to the constraints of the First Amendment.

That's not a problem with the First Amendment. That's a problem with the privatization of public life. Yeah. And I think we're seeing that in a lot of other realms as well. So, for example, as we see traditional government functions being more and more assumed by private utilities. We have a situation where what, you know, 40 years ago might have been people petitioning the government

not to build a pipeline, right? That would have been a First Amendment protected gathering, right? We might have a protest at a government building. That would be protected by the First Amendment. Now, if you have a group of people who want to protest, for example, a pipeline, that whole process beginning to end may be so controlled by a private corporation that there's no government building to protest that anymore, right? And so what would have otherwise been a First Amendment protected protest is now a bunch of trespassing charges.

Yeah. Right? Because the place that people are going to do that protest, to carry out that protest may be private property, right? Yeah. You know, we're no longer petitioning the government. Now we're petitioning, you know, energy transfer partners. This sort of, you know, raises this question. On the one hand, I'm like, oh, I'm not as worried about, you know, Robert Kraft getting to say, oh, McLeodagh's not welcome at Gillette Stadium. I'm thinking about the ways in which he's able to use his wealth and capital to sort of manipulate the situation with government entities or call on his NFL buddies to kick them out in other places. But there is also a consideration of around the concentration of wealth and the ways in which privatization is rapidly happening in various

different instances across the country. And at what point do you see the shrinking of the public square just generally across the board? And the ways in which Billy are then able to control the narrative through that ownership. Yeah. I think one of the other things that is worth pointing out is a lot of times when we're talking about First Amendment retaliation or, you know, what we're seeing here, right, where you see an organization, public or private, engage in this kind of really obvious censorship on the basis of viewpoint.

Right. We usually do not see the kind of smoking gun, but, you know, putting it in an email. Yeah. And saying, I don't want to see this individual being allowed to perform for the following reason, which is that he expressed solidarity with Palestine, right? We usually see at least a little bit more, well, usually we don't have a smoking gun email. Yeah. Or talking to the press about it. Right. And I think that one of the things that's actually unusual about this situation is that maybe just due to wealth and power, Robert Kraft didn't have any compunction or concern about very publicly saying I don't want this to happen because I am offended personally by the political content of his speech. Yeah. And I would say, you know, typically people who are at least in government who have,

the kind of power know better than to say the client part out loud. Yeah. And I think it's sort of interesting, I guess, just that the billionaire class has become so comfortable with their own strength, I guess, that they're not concerned about being publicly very honest about their desire to censor certain people. And so, you know, in this instance, it may actually be an interesting opportunity just because some of these stadiums are publicly owned. And so to the extent that those stadiums can be shown to have canceled the show under pressure from this private actor. And on the basis of that private actor's sort of personal convictions, it does.

does create an interesting opportunity. You had said something about not being clear on what the leases were and the, you know, the arrangements and contracts. And I am also not clear on what those contracts are, how they might implicate First Amendment concerns or undermine First Amendment rights. But if there were to be, for example, a lawsuit filed about it, some of that stuff would come out in discovery in the process of turning over evidence. And so if nothing else, I kind of hope that, you know, one of the impact litigation outfits does file a suit, not because I am concerned about vindicating McElmore's First Amendment rights, but because I think we need to really be vigilant and alert to the actual legal mechanisms by which,

the government is performing an end run around constraints on state power. To wrap this episode up, I just wanted to highlight again, although it may feel a bit silly to talk about all this in the context of McLemore, a multimillionaire, I think the point is that this sets a bad precedent. Notably, we've witnessed crackdowns on university students over Palestine solidarity protests. There was a new ruling against a student from the University of Texas, Austin just last week. There may still be open questions about these stadiums and their complicated contract arrangements, but either way, the wealthy are wielding influence over the public square.

With all that said, here is Moe with one final note. I would just like your listeners to be alert to all of the ways in which our daily lives are frankly made possible by First Amendment protections that we don't think about very often. And I would like to plug the concept and the practice of not talking to law enforcement until you have had an opportunity to consult with counsel. Yeah. Always good. It could happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, Coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency. It does not have body cameras. It's real.

Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going, they are playing y'all for fools. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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