TN Republicans call on college presidents to punish student-athletes for kneeling during anthem

If university administrators followed through on the senators’ request, they would be violating student-athletes’ First Amendment rights. Students at public universities enjoy broad free speech protections, and officials cannot punish them for engaging in political expression.

This is not really an open question: The Supreme Court ruled in the 1943 decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that schools may not require students to salute the American flag. Yes, the Court has agreed with limiting K-12 students’ rights in some very specific cases—most dubiously, if students’ speech appeared to be advocating illegal drug use—but such an exception wouldn’t apply to college athletes engaged in a non-disruptive political protest. If the university could force student-athletes to stand for the national anthem, then it could force any student to do so—and this would obviously be unconstitutional.