Freedom Forum report on the State of the First Amendment

[Colin Rafferty]

William H Geiger writes:
> In <ocrwwgw2bd3.fsf at ml.com>, on 12/23/97 at 12:55 PM, Colin Rafferty <craffert at ml.com> said:
>> William H Geiger writes:
>>> In <ocryb1c2i2u.fsf at ml.com>, on 12/23/97 at 10:30 AM, Colin Rafferty <craffert at ml.com> said:
>>>> Paul Bradley writes:

>>>>>> >Suppose RealBig Corporation fired Umbehr for his views. Would a First
>>>>>> >Amendment issue have arisen? Of course not. In a free society, RealBig
>>>>>> >is free to hire whom it wishes, and to refuse to hire niggers, homos,
>>>>>> >perverts, Jews, whatever. And to fire anyone who wrote opinions the
>>>>>> >managers at RealBig disliked.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Substitute "fascist society" for "free society" in the paragraph
>>>>>> above and the discussion begins to make some sense. Hell, it's even
>>>>>> historically accurate.

>>>>> Wrong, do you dispute the fact that RealBig corp. is free to refuse to 
>>>>> hire people for any reason whatsoever? Do you think I should not be 
>>>>> allowed to refuse to hire people because of their race or sexual
>>>>> orientation?

>>>>> Should the government be able to take action against me because I fire 
>>>>> someone for being jewish/black/homosexual???

>>>> Welcome to the 20th Century, moron.

>>> Really amazing how many so-called "freedom fighters" become STATIST if the
>>> proper buttons are pushed.

>> What are you talking about?

>> Freedom of expression is not the same as freedom of oppression.

>> If you want to live in a hut in Montana and shelter yourself from the
>> real world, feel free.  Otherwise, it may be a good idea to check out
>> social theories from the last hundred years.

> Please explain to me where in the Constitution the government is given the
> power to determin who I *must* associate with?? 

Given that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was upheld as Constitutional, I
would generally use that as an argument.

> If I decide that I do not
> wish to do business with anyone who's last name begins with the letter "R"
> what gives you the right to say that I must?!?

No one.  In fact, sometimes I wish that you would :-).

On the other hand, if a law were passed that made it illegal, and the
Supreme Court found it constitutional, then it would be.

-- 
Colin