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Yankee Stadium is home to a rendition of "God Bless America" before the bottom of the seventh inning during every game. In order to restrict the disrespectful movement of fans during the song, the main aisle of field-level seating is blocked by chains that keep patrons from leaving their rows. ?Yankee management is free to promote its brand of musical patriotism,? said Arthur Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. ?But we need to be wary of enforced cultural conformity and the use of a ballgame to impose political correctness on a captive audience.? The organization said it would consider legal action only if a fan were arrested for disobeying the policy. Michael C. Dorf, a Columbia Law School professor, said the Yankee chains are constitutional. ?It doesn?t violate the Constitution, because the Yankees are not the government,? Dorf said. ?If they were a municipally owned team, you could have an issue because the team would be a state actor.? |