San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick definitely has a right as a citizen to kneel during the national anthem.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution and numerous Supreme Court decisions have made that much clear.
What is less clear, however, is the extent to which U.S. law protects the controversial quarterback — or anybody else who takes a political stand at work — from being disciplined by his employer.
|Most private sector workers not protected
According to Workplace Fairness, a national nonprofit that advocates for employee rights, most workers in the private sector are not protected from retaliation for expressing their political beliefs on the job. Most employees in the U.S., after all, are “at-will,” meaning they can be fired for just about any reason or for no reason at all. Only certain protected categories — such as race, ethnicity, gender, disability or religion — are protected by federal law.
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