During the 50 years I lived in Cambridge and rooted for the Red Sox, I attended nearly every opening day at Fenway Park. I generally sat in the owner’s box, next to John Henry, who was a friend. He had been to my home to celebrate the victory of Barack Obama in 2008. He had invited me and my wife to join him on his boat and airplane for several trips in various parts of the world. He had gone so far as to appoint me honorary Attorney General of Red Sox Nation. We were friends, I thought, forever.
Then suddenly everything changed. I represented President Trump against his unconstitutional impeachment on the floor of the Senate, though I was a loyal Democrat who had voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since John Kennedy. But I do not choose my clients or constitutional causes based on party loyalty or affiliation. I choose them on the basis of the importance of the constitutional issue. I helped defend President Clinton when he was unconstitutionally impeached and would have offered to defend President Biden if he had been improperly impeached.
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But that wasn’t enough to dissuade John Henry from ending our long friendship and canceling me. I am no longer welcome in the owner’s box at Fenway. Indeed John and his wife Linda haven’t spoken to me and my wife since the day I defended Donald Trump. I guess the constitution of Red Sox Nation doesn’t include the right to have a different opinion on legal issues.
I could of course anonymously pay for a seat on the green monster and root for the Sox, but I would feel unwelcome and uncomfortable knowing that the Henrys would not want me to be there.
I am sure many Red Sox players and fans would agree with my representation of President Trump. Even those who disagreed would not want me ejected from Red Sox Nation after a half-century of loyal support for Boston’s team. But Red Sox Nation is not a democracy. It is a tyranny whose actions are determined by only two people: John and Linda Henry.
I will continue to root for the Red Sox, and even occasionally attend a game if I am allowed into the hallowed grandstands of Fenway, but I will not feel welcome. Nor should Red Sox fans who do not agree with the Henrys’ high-handedness in canceling me.
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The Red Sox are more enduring than their temporary owners, who seem to care more these days about British soccer than Boston baseball. Their attempt to punish me will not dissuade me from continuing to defend people with whom they disagree. That is the American way, that’s the Boston Red Sox way, it’s just not the Henrys’ way.
I could have accepted the undeserved punishment in silence, but I think I owe it to my fellow Red Sox fans to let them know the full truth about the Red Sox’s primary owners: they are intolerant and do not support the principles underlying our Constitution.
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism, and Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of “The Dershow” podcast.
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