... Where and how it that statement limited only to governmental actors...
Where in the Bill of Rights does it say business owners can’t limit free speech?
The NFL sure as heck does when it forbids it’s players from taking a knee? But, they can and they do now.
Every Amendment is a limit on government conduct, not individual conduct or business conduct
Think an employee locker is safe from employer search? Or your personal desk on it’s premises? Or, are they protected by the fourth amendment? No. The employer can go through them with no search warrant.
Remember how Obama bitched about how the Constitution was a document of negative rights, a list of things the Government can’t do?
Yes, the bill of Rights is a list of things government can’t do. The 14th Amendment makes the Bill of Rights applicable to what the states can’t do in addition to what the Feds can’t do. Nothing there to prohibit what individuals or businesses can’t do.
About 10-12 Colonies insisted on the Bill of Rights before they would sign on to the Constitution.
So this is short any choppy cause I’m on my phone.
Not every amendment (or right/power in the main body) is negative. Article I Section Eight is a full list of powers allowed to Congress - those aren’t negative rights.
NFL business owners can limit speech because they’re the ones who ‘own’ the property, who make the employment contract. As you say, freedom of speech is, by the amendment, a limit on Congress. Employers can go through your locker because they own it - but your employer can’t search your house or go through your car willy-nilly unless you give them permission to.
However, some of the amendments aren’t limits on Congress - Four through Eight deal mostly with the courts and civil/criminal legal processes. How many federal courts do you think were involved in suits of less than $20? So why would the Constitution even mention stuff that was going to be a state/County level court process? These amendments didn’t need to be incorporated against the states, they were, by their wording, a universal right retained by the people. The Second is the same - the right of the people shall not be infringed. None of the wording in the amendment itself or the preamble states it is limited to Congress. The wording within the amendment, too, entirely applies to the people, not to the government.