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home / study / social sciences / international relations / international relations questions and answers / The First Amendment To The United States Constitution Guarantees, Among Other Things, The Right ... Question: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees, among other things, the right t... The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees, among other things, the right to free speech. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees, among other things, that no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Many NCAA Division I schools are now requiring student athletes to give up their right to free speech by banning the use of social media as a condition of playing a sport and receiving an athletic scholarship. Alternatively, some entire collegiate athletic departments permit student-athletes to use social media, but have gone so far as to contract with outside vendors to monitor the social media activity of student athletes. This is accomplished by requiring the students to “friend” the vendor’s social media pages so the vendor can track all activity of the student athlete, as well as any photos, comments, tags or other mentions of the student athlete on his or her friends’ pages. Some student-athletes have argued against the bans and/or against the monitoring of their social media activity, stating that they are being treated differently from non student-athletes (whose social media activity is not banned or monitored) at their colleges or universities. Discuss each of the following questions: 1. Is this a permissible curtailment of a First Amendment right? Why or not? 2. Is this a permissible classification under the Equal Protection Clause? Why or not? 3. Are there contractual issues involved? If so, what are they? If not, why not? 4. Are your answers to the questions different for student-athletes at Villanova University (a private university) than they are for student-athletes at the University of North Carolina (a public university)? If so, why? If not, why not?
Explanation / Answer
1.
As per the first amendment of US law, every person has the right to free speech. He/she can express themselves openly. No one can restrict anybody from expressing their views.
From the case, it can be extracted that a permissible curtailment in the rights of athletes restricts their social lives. This builds up a gap between them and the non-athletes. Thus, a reduction is the first amendment i.e. a restriction on right to free speech for the athletes is not justified.
2.
The Fourteenth amendment provides equal rights to the citizens of the united states. This amendment is subjected to equal protection clause which states that, all the citizens are neutral and should possess certain rights which are equally applied. Thus, the permissible classification should not be considered under the equal protection clause.
3.
As per the case, the management is having a contract with the outside vendors to keep a check over the social update activities of the athletes. As per the contract, the social activities of the athletes should be monitored but, the vendors restricted the access of athletes over the social media. Thus, there are contractual issues involved in the contract.
4.
As per the case, one’s answers should be in the favor of the athletes as, the contract framed by the management was becoming a hurdle in the social life of the athletes which violated the first amendment of the US law.
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