American Bar Association (ABA): “The exploding use of social media can sometimes put employers and employees at odds. Employers must decide how to respond when employees express political and social opinions in the workplace, in conversation or through apparel. Other outside-of-work activities, including lawful drug use, increasingly have employment implications as well. While private employers are not governed by the First Amendment, some state and local laws protect employees from adverse employment actions for their social or political expression. Federal agencies such as the NLRB and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforce laws prohibiting discrimination for certain content and forms of political and social expression. In the NLRB context, the question is whether the expression raises concerns about working conditions or impacts on the workplace. If so, a policy banning employees from expressing such messages while on work time can interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights under Section 7. Some expressions also may be found to be harassing and subject to prohibition on that basis. For example, the EEOC has taken the position, and several courts have agreed, that displaying the Confederate flag is a form of unlawful racial harassment, and an employer’s failure to timely stop an employee from displaying it at work may constitute harassment. Also, Title VII and similar statutes prohibit discrimination based on membership or association with members in protected categories but do not necessarily protect association with a social cause…”