Tennessee and the 1st Amendment

 I've seen a number of comments to the effect that what the TN House did in expelling two elected Black men is a violation of the 1st Amendment. No, it isn't. The 1st Amendment does not guarantee your right to hold an elective state office. The 1st Amendment prevents the government from depriving you of life, liberty or property on the basis of your speech. That's it.

What the TN state leg did was contemptible, and it says a lot about the fragile nature of the GOP project that they felt silencing peaceable assembly and expression of grievances was necessary. But it wasn't unconstitutional. It was just wrong.

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