Quote:
Originally posted by Tom Earp
There is such a thing called the Freedom Of Speech Act.
|
No, there isn't -- at least, not that I know of. Private organizations are legally free to restrict the speech of their members. In fact, sometimes the organization has its own free speech right to do just that.
Sigh. I've been over this so often I have canned comments just waiting for it now.
Constitutional rights limit the sorts of things the
government can do. The most salient example here, the First Amendment's free speech clause, limits the ways the government can restrict speech.
Constitutional rights do
not limit private persons or organizations unless they act as government agents. This is why private educational institutions (especially those who accept no federal money) can limit speech and other things we consider to be constitutional rights in all sorts of ways that government-run educational institutions cannot. Sometimes, other laws (like the tax code, federal financial aid laws, or the Civil Rights Acts) try to help people enforce constitutional rights against private organizations, but
standing alone, the Constitution is powerless against private organizations.
I don't know of any laws that apply to this situation, though if anyone can provide a
citation to a law, I'd be curious to have a look.
It's still a terrible decision. There's no law against it that I know of, though.