NYPD Disrespect Continues, De Blasio Heckled And Booed At Cadet Graduation (VIDEO)

[onenote]

15. If you went to law school, you need to ask for your money back.

As I pointed out, the First Amendment doesn't apply to private speech. So you're right it doesn't apply when a private employer wants to fire an employee.

But it does apply to public employees, as was made clear by Justice Marshall in Pickering v. Board of Education in 1968 holding that speech on a matter of public concern by a public employee, even if critical of a nominal supervisor, is protected by the First Amendment. To paraphrase Marshall, the suggestion that public employees may constitutionally be compelled to relinquish the First Amendment rights they would otherwise enjoy as citizens to comment on matters of public interest proceeds on a premise that has been unequivocally rejected in numerous prior decisions of the Supreme Court.

Finally, to the extent you are suggesting that online communities can implement whatever rules they want regarding the speech of their members, you would get no argument from me, since as I made clear, the First Amendment doesn't apply to private action. But the statement that the First Amendment doesn't apply to online communities is utterly false insofar as it might be read as suggesting online communities have no First Amendment protection against state action: if the government tried to shut down DU, it would face a lawsuit. And it would lose.