As a top finalist for UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of speech in 2020, I have looked at all kinds of curious cases related to freedom of speech throughout my career -- inside and outside the UN, academically and otherwise.

Senator Hawley has no First Amendment case when it comes to the cancellation of his book by Simon & Schuster. It's erroneous to consider a private publishing house as if it were the government. If the government was trying to censor a planned or published book, that would be a different story. There is a difference between a government ban or restrictions, and acceptance of content by a media or publisher.

Publishers and media alike enjoy editorial freedom. Now, that's the stuff that the First Amendment is really made of. This is the kind of stuff you can't actually fiddle with. 

For Senator Hawley, on the other hand, there is no right to be published wherever you want. That kind of rationale would lead to absurdities such as First Amendment law suits for not getting air time on TV or for not being awarded a publishing contract, for example. There is no right to be chosen, or the reverse – a right that protects one from being un-chosen. Because this is what happened in essence here – Senator Hawley was un-chosen.

Simon & Schuster's decision might be frustrating but, by all means, it is not illegal. The right to freedom of speech is not absolute, hate speech and incitement to violence being some of the obvious limitations. But we don't even need to go this far and inside the contents of the book to find something wrong with it, such as incitement or hate speech, for the book to be cancellable. The publisher does not even need to show that. They have a choice of whom to associate or dissociate with. As an author myself, I would find the potential cancellation of my book very frustrating, but that wouldn't make it illegal.

But of course, being a constitutional lawyer, Senator Hawley already knows this. 

Iveta Cherneva is an Amazon best-selling author and a political commentator who previously worked for Congress and the UN. She was a top finalist for UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of speech in 2020.