No, state fairs can’t bar exhibitors from selling or displaying Confederate flag items

Hwy 105 Flea Market. Image courtesy of accent on ecclectic, via everystockphoto.com.

The always-lucid and super bright Eugene Volokh rightly points out, “No, state fairs can’t bar exhibitors from selling or displaying Confederate flag items.”

Recent news stories report that Indiana and Kentucky state fairs are barring exhibitors from selling or displaying the Confederate battle flag, or products containing that flag; Ohio seems to have done the same, and other fairs are considering it. But such bans violate the First Amendment.