Surprising connection between 'take a knee' protests and Citizens United

Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that some fear is destroying American democracy, may also be showing us how to heal it.

The most recent example of this is the reaction to President Donald Trump’s comments suggesting that sports owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem. As the president does so often, he placed business leaders in the difficult position of deciding whether to speak out at the risk of alienating customers and courting further controversy.
In this case, many league officials and owners chose to do just that, labeling Trump’s words “divisive” and defending their players’ right to “express themselves freely on matters important to them.” Some owners “took a knee” alongside their players.

While corporate speech is often assumed to favor only conservative causes, my research on attorney advertising reveals the extent to which free speech rights for companies also advances causes important to liberals.

I would argue that Citizens United – a Supreme Court opinion that has produced bitterly partisan reactions – ironically offers a pluralistic vision of corporate speech as well as a full-throated defense of the kind of political speech we are now witnessing from business leaders.
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