Free speech is a bedrock principle of the United States. It is the right that lets ideas compete in public, even when they are controversial, clumsy, or poorly timed. Like every freedom, it also carries responsibilities. That lesson is playing out on a stadium tour that was supposed to be about music. 

The artist Macklemore used his opening slot on Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to turn a night of entertainment into a political statement. He told tens of thousands of people that one reason he joined the tour was so he could stand in American stadiums and say “Free Palestine.” He performed a protest song. He projected images and political messaging onto the screens. The First Amendment exists precisely because speech can be provocative and uncomfortable. The government cannot jail him for a political slogan, and no decent person should want it to. 

Promoters, venue owners, and headliners are not government agencies or public utilities. These entities have contracts, insurance, stadium leases, and hundreds of thousands of ticket holders who paid for a concert. After Macklemore’s New Jersey dates, venue stakeholders, including Robert Kraft at Gillette Stadium, objected to his continued presence on the bill. The tour promoter........

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