Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Interesting
The Sea Scouts thing is more interesting than I thought. The Sea Scouts could've gotten their free berth by "disavowing" the Boy Scouts anti-gay policies. No one seems to argue that the Sea Scouts actually discriminate. Instead, it is the responsibility of those who want free stuff from the government to actively disavow activities that they don't engage in based solely on associations. I can imagine quite a can of worms that could open.
Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said the city has not violated the First Amendment rights of the Berkeley Sea Scouts.
"We understand you have the First Amendment right to belong to discriminatory clubs," she said. "Our position is simply that you do not have the right to finance private discriminatory clubs on the taxpayer's dime."
Uh oh. You should just shut up. This is not a question of financing private discriminatory clubs. It's a question of financing private non-discriminatory clubs that are associated with private discriminatory clubs.
In 1997 the city council passed a resolution that granted free berths only to those community organizations that act in accordance with the city's non-discrimination policies.
Except the Sea Scouts do act in accordance with those policies, they just don't actively disavow those who don't.
Albuquerque said that the city not only has the right but is obligated to fund only those groups whose policies coincide with the city's.
"The very nature of government is to decide what is good public policy," Albuquerque said. "If the government is not allowed to decide what to fund, what is the point of electing anyone in the first place?"
I told you to just shut up. The city government apparently should have the right to decide which viewpoints to fund, if Albuquerque is to be believed. Call me crazy, but having the government decide which viewpoints are to be facilitated based solely on the political opinions held in speech, (or, in this case, lack thereof), rankles my First Amendment bone.
. . .
|
. . .
|
