If you'll recall, the University of Missouri football team boycotted all football activities until the university's president resigned. Apparently, Rep. Rick Brattin, a Republican who represents the 55th District in Missouri's state house of representatives, was none too thrilled with the athletes' exercising their own agency. So, he decided there oughta be a law.
Brattin prefiled HB 1743 on December 11, along with eight other bills that fit squarely into his conservative agenda. HB 1746, for instance, allows for guns and ammunition to be tax-exempt. You know, like a donation. And then there's HB 1742, which would charge inmates 50 cents for every non-emergency medical examination (prisoners in Missouri earn $7.50 per month).We reached out to Representative Brattin in hopes that he could explain the relationship between his faith in the free market and limited government as the solution to society's ills and his own use of a decidedly non-limited government measure and the threat of state-sponsored economic sanctionsto curtail the rights of college students to express themselves. If we hear from him, we will update the post.HB 1743: Provides that any college athlete on scholarship who refuses to play for a reason unrelated to health shall have his or her scholarship revoked.