As a practical matter, the American ideal of freedom of speech is meaningless to most Americans. We have to work for a living. When we get a job, we have to conform our expression to the whims of our employer, or we risk being fired or suspended or otherwise punished for what we say.
The case of Ozzie Guillen is a good illustration. Ozzie has spouted off about a number of things, but the thing that got him in trouble was saying something sort of nice about Fidel Castro.
It should go without saying that I don't like Fidel Castro, but that doesn't mean that someone else shouldn't be able to say nice things about him without getting suspended from his job. But in our system, it's up to the employer to make that call. You can be fired for any reason or for no reason or for a wrong reason or for a stupid reason. There are some civil rights protections, but they don't protect civil liberties.
Government should not discriminate against people for their political speech. One of the events in this scenario was the abuse of the office of Joe Martinez, Chairman of the Miami Dade Board of County Commissioners. Martinez wrote the owner of the Marlins and demanded that Guillen be fired. When a governmental body calls upon a private employer to punish an employee for political speech, there is a problem. There's probably not a lawsuit here, but this doesn't mean that Martinez avoids violating the spirit of the First Amendment. This is particularly inappropriate in that Martinez wrote his letter on official stationery. Every local sports team is to some extent dependent on local government.
While Martinez is no Fidel Castro, he nevertheless shows an appalling lack of the respect for freedom of expression that ought to inform the opinions of any politician.
Also, I can't help but notice that Martinez panders to the right wing in putting Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Adolph Hitler, and Sadam [sic] Hussein all in the same category. Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in more or less free and open elections, has stood for election several times and won, and has proposed changes to Venezuelan law, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. Granted, Chavez isn't as dedicated to free expression as, say, I am, but he's not the murderous tyrant that Fidel Castro, Adolph Hitler, or Saddam Hussein were. There was some press last year about the editor of an anti-Chavez newspaper editor being arrested (then released) which sort of brushes over the fact that there are anti-Chavez newspapers in circulation in Venezuela. There are anti-Chavez television stations as well. This is something that Castro, Hitler, and Hussein would never have tolerated. Sure, Chavez hangs around with Castro, and Castro is one of the biggest assholes in the entire hemisphere, but Chavez is no Castro. Chavez has shown that you can move in a socialist direction without having to kill everyone in sight. Venezuela does not have the death penalty, and is 96th in the world in its incarceration rate. (We're No. 1, in case you're keeping score.
Anyway, while it's not illegal for the Miami Marlins to suspend Guillen for his comments, it's disgusting and it's inconsistent with the philosophy of freedom of expression.