A national free speech organization has raised concerns over Gov. Jeff Landry asking LSU to require student athletes be present during the national anthem — and over the university’s willingness to comply with his demand.
“Since 1943, when the Supreme Court held that forcing public school students to pledge allegiance to our nation’s flag was unconstitutional,” wrote Alex Morey, campus rights advocacy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, “it has been emphatically clear that Americans are free to choose how, or whether, they demonstrate patriotism.”
The letter from FIRE was sent Friday to LSU Board of Supervisors chair Jimmie Woods Sr.
The tussle began after some pointed out that the LSU women’s basketball team wasn’t on the court during the national anthem before the Elite Eight matchup against Iowa. Two days after the game, Landry appeared on Fox News to criticize the team over their absence. 
“The national anthem is as much a part of American sports as is the actual game being played,” Landry said. “The fact that there is not a policy that says, ‘listen, these players are gonna be out there and respect the flag and respect those that go out there and protect us’ is really disappointing,” the governor continued.
The governor sent a letter to the LSU board chair Woods to ask the university to establish such a policy.
It is normal for the LSU women’s basketball team — and other teams at the university and beyond — not to appear on the court during the anthem. The Army football team was not on the field of Tiger Stadium during the anthem when playing there this fall, for instance.
LSU head football coach Brian Kelly said he could count on one hand how many times he’s been on the field during the national anthem in 33 years of coaching, but “if our administration wants us out there for the national anthem, we’re going to stand proud for the national anthem.”
Athletic Director Scott Woodward said LSU is “dedicated to the flag, the anthem and the country.” He also said, “We consistently look at all our processes and will do so again.”
FIRE urged the university not to change that process.
“There is nothing less patriotic than government actors forcing their personal views on fellow citizens. And doing so is definitively unconstitutional in the United States of America,” Morey wrote. “We thus ask LSU, and all of Louisiana’s public universities, to decline the present request to violate their student-athletes’ First Amendment rights.”