A benefit tour looking for a Seattle stage picked up an unusual advocate in the U.S. House.
As reported by The Post Millennial, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, publicly pressed Climate Pledge Arena to host Macklemores Free Palestine benefit tour and treated the booking fight as a free-speech issue. Xs Community Notes answered with a basic civics lesson the congresswoman had skipped.
Jayapal wrote, Freedom of Speech is a paramount right in this country. It is wrong that Seattles own Climate Pledge Arena is reportedly blocking Macklemores performance. I call on Climate Pledge to make every effort to ensure Macklemore is able to perform in his own hometown arena. She closed the appeal with a scolding line: Seattle is better than this.
The Community Note that followed restated a limit every lawmaker ought to know. The First Amendment bars government from restricting speech; it does not force a private venue to hand over its stage.
Private companies are not transformed into state actors merely because they host other peoples performances. The Supreme Court has long treated that distinction as settled law, not a technicality to be waved away in a social media post.
Macklemore may say what he wishes. He is not entitled, as a matter of constitutional right, to a particular arena, a particular date, or a particular hometown booking.
The rapper has said nine American arenas turned down the tour, including Climate Pledge Arena, the Seattle Krakens home, which the arenas owner partly owns. MSG Entertainment put the refusal in blunt commercial terms: We have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability and hes not an arena-level act.
Jayapals post also left out why some venues might hesitate. The tour is intended to raise money for organizations that have faced government scrutiny or allegations of supporting Hamas and other designated terrorist groups.
One beneficiary is UNRWA USA, which raises money for the U.N. agency. The inspector general at the U.S. Agency for International Development referred 101 current and former UNRWA employees for possible suspension or debarment over alleged participation in the October 7 attacks or affiliation with Hamas military wing.
HEAL Palestine, another beneficiary, has been the subject of a South Carolina attorney general inquiry into nonprofits potentially supporting Hamas. At a London concert on October 30, Macklemore wore a Free Marwan shirt and brought out Marwan Barghoutis son; Barghouti is serving five life sentences for his role in attacks that killed five people, including a Greek monk.
This was not Jayapals only recent collision with Community Notes. A day earlier, a KOMO News post quoting her vow to take our state back, and her plan to overturn voter-approved initiatives, also drew a correction.
The note asked, in effect, who exactly was in charge. Democrats had just won a supermajority in Washingtons state House and kept control of the Senate, leaving little doubt about who already governs the state.
One Community Note reminded the congresswoman who holds power in Olympia. The next reminded her that the First Amendment restrains government, not a private arena that declines to book a show.
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