The Bill of Rights is essential to our way of life. It enshrines our God-given rights that our federal and state governments are meant to steward, ensuring that we, the people, can express ourselves freely without fear of government persecution.
That right is so important that the Framers made it the First Amendment to the Constitution.
While we all enjoy freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition, it is true that the First Amendment rights do have limits. Yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is a classic example of non-protected speech. When you are a government employee, your First Amendment rights are actually more limited than if you were a private citizen.
For example, individuals in the executive branch must limit their political activism while at work under the Hatch Act.
So, when federal and state government employees take actions to impede federal law enforcement or give the appearance of supporting such activities, it becomes a big deal.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen this play out amid the unrest in Minneapolis. In one example, an on-duty Postal Service worker flipped off and verbally accosted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Not only was this behavior unbecoming of a federal government representative, but it likely doesn’t qualify as protected speech for government employees.
State government employees also face the same restrictions, no matter their job. This is especially true for those working in state legal systems. Despite these restrictions, Jamael Lundy, the intergovernmental affairs director of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and a political candidate, stormed the Cities Church in St. Paul alongside an anti-ICE group to protest ICE activities.
Regardless of Lundy’s status as a political candidate, his being a public employee of a county attorney means he is held to the same First Amendment standards as his colleagues.
More than that, it calls into question the impartiality of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and raises many questions about accountability for him and individuals like him when they engage in such demonstrations. It also sends a bright flare to their constituents that Lundy and others prioritize their political ideologies over others’ constitutional rights.
Thankfully, Lundy and two other leaders of the anti-ICE group were arrested by and charged with conspiring and interfering with the worshippers’ First Amendment rights to worship.
For the country to succeed, government employees must recognize that, while they have First Amendment rights, playing politics with their official position (or just the appearance of it) is unacceptable. It leads to further distrust of law enforcement, public officials and our system of governance.
Americans have seen rioting before. They could rightly expect that the rioters weren’t being abetted by those who are supposed to be working for them.
Would that they still could.
Houston Keene is a director at Democracy Restored/InsideSources
