SINCE WHEN DOES AN IDIOT NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE IDIOTIC REMARKS?

I will absolutely agree that Sterling’s remarks are reprehensible, but in this country the constitution guarantees everyone the right to make reprehensible remarks.   
If the constitution did not guarantee this right, Al Sharpton and the reverend Jeremiah Wright would both be rotting away in some prison cell, as would hundreds of thousands of other people.

I do realize that the NBA is a private organization and can create bylaws that only please themselves; however, they are still required to recognize the players’ right to join a union and be subject to scrutiny by the NLRB.  They also have to deal with OSHA and other constitutionally supported government entities, including the IRS.   So basically, as I see it, bylaws must still be constitutional. 

The disregard of the Constitution in favor of almost anyone who claims to be offended is terrifying.  What comes next?  Stripping the ownership of Hobby Lobby from the Green family, simply because an abortion activist is offended?   Shall the ownership of Wal-Mart be taken away from the Walton family because the socialistic President is dedicated to wealth redistribution?

It is my understanding that the provisions in NBA bylaws allowing owners to expel one of their members are limited to a current owner having the financial inability to run a team, gambling on a team or game fixing.   Mr. Sterling has not been accused of any of those transgressions.   His punishment is based on racially bigoted comments he has allegedly made, which were apparently taped illegally according to California law. 

I have found no news reports that Mr. Sterling had any opportunity to address those who have leveled this charge.

The NBA bylaws apparently allow the other owners to act as a jury to determine whether or not Sterling can continue as the owner of the Clippers, and will allow the league to operate the team until such time as it can be sold, with the proceeds of such a sale going to Sterling. 

Isn’t it big of them to allow Sterling to keep the proceeds from his own property?  What a great bunch of guys.  So Mr. Sterling’s property, reported to be worth in the neighborhood of $700 million, will be sold out from under him.  He will have no influence, apparently, on the final price of the sale, as in saying that the prospective buyer’s offer is unacceptable.  So, it is conceivable that there will be a substantial loss for Sterling on the sale of the Clippers.  And that “substantial” loss could mean a loss measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

I’m not defending what this idiot said; I’m only defending his constitutional right to be an idiot.