TX Lt. Gov Cancel Cultures Dallas Mavs Over National Anthem

First Amendment is cool and all, but have you tried state-mandated patriotic chanting?

(Photo via Brian Cuban)

Oh, no, it’s cancel culture again!

Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch and Ben Shapiro and Josh Hawley warned us about woke groupthinkers murdering the First Amendment and telling us what we could and couldn’t say. Sure all their examples were of private companies, so they had exactly zero constitutional implication… butbutbut slippery slope! One day a publisher is canceling a book deal because the author incites a murderous mob, the next day the government is telling you what to say, or else.

And it turns out, they were right. Well, kind of.

In response to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s decision not to play the anthem before the first 13 home games, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has just announced the Star Spangled Banner protection act, AKA SB4, to mandate patriotic chanting at all public events receiving taxpayer subsidy.

“It is hard to believe this could happen in Texas, but Mark Cuban’s actions of yesterday made it clear that we must specify that in Texas we play the national anthem before all major events,” he said. “In this time when so many things divide us, sports are one thing that bring us together — right, left, black, white and brown. This legislation already enjoys broad support. I am certain it will pass, and the Star Spangled Banner will not be threatened in the Lone Star State again.”

O say can you see … a facially unconstitutional government enactment?

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In 1943, Justice Robert Jackson authored the Supreme Court opinion holding that children could not be forced to recite the pledge of allegiance in school, writing “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

And when it comes to pettiness, Dan Patrick is second to no official.

“Your decision to cancel our National Anthem at @dallasmavs games is a slap in the face to every American & an embarrassment to Texas,” he tweeted from his fainting couch. (Presumably.) “Sell the franchise & some Texas Patriots will buy it. We ARE the land of free & the home of the brave.” Because failing to play an unsingable, repurposed English drinking song is exactly the same as urinating on the flag at center court after the second quarter.

Setting aside the unconstitutionality of the law, its practical implication would be virtually constant chanting in an effort to avoid losing government subsidy, as Vox’s Ian Millhiser points out.

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Woohoo, kegger at ZBTahiti! Come by midnight so you don’t miss the anthem.

In any event, legal action won’t be necessary. “With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy,” the NBA said Wednesday. After which the Mavericks immediately announced that the anthem would be played before that evening’s game, but released this statement from Cuban:

We respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country. But we also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them. We feel that their voices need to be respected and heard, because they have not been. Going forward, our hope is that people will take the same passion they have for this issue and apply the same amount of energy to listen to those who feel differently from them. Only then we can move forward and have courageous conversations that move this country forward and find what unites us.

Meanwhile Texas state legislators are still trying to cancel culture Mark Cuban.

“The stadiums, subsidized by the taxpayers, which host the Mavericks should either condemn @mcuban’s anti-American decisions and override him; or, return all tax subsidies they have received,” tweeted Texas House member Dustin Burroughs.

Because social justice is “anti-American.” True patriots ignore the First Amendment and 70 years of American jurisprudence.

Land of the free, and home of the brave.

Dan Patrick makes “Star Spangled Banner Act” a legislative priority after the Mavericks go 13 games without the national anthem [Texas Tribune]


Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.;