Chick-fil-a Support Day and Free Speech

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Menino, in a letter on City of Boston letterhead addressed to Dan Cathy, said that he was angry they were looking for a location in Boston, there was no place for Chik-Fil-A on Boston's "Freedom Trail," that it would be an insult for them to be across from City Hall, and that Chik-Fil-A should back out of plans to locate there. No, it's not going as far as specifically saying he will block them from locating there, but I can see how many thought it was over the line for the mayor and comes uncomfortably close to such a suggestion on his part.

I think it was pretty dumb (par for the course for Menino), but the statement seemed very particularly crafted to dodge any specific threats of agency action - I'll be first in line to drive the ACLU to file against him should [the City of Boston] actually take any action. I can't imagine that will happen though, there's zero way to justify that.

//edited for clarity

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

I think it was pretty dumb (par for the course for Menino), but the statement seemed very particularly crafted to dodge any specific threats of agency action - I'll be first in line to drive the ACLU to file against him should they actually take any action. I can't imagine that will happen though, there's zero way to justify that.

I don't think it will happen either; they surely know there's no way to justify it. But I can see how many (including the ACLU) thought it was uncomfortably close to the line.

And just in case I haven't been clear about it, the statements from mayors like Menino are the only conceivable ways that freedom of speech comes close to being at issue here. The idea that boycotts or criticisms somehow violate freedom of speech is ludicrous. (But not as ludicrous as Huckabee's "hate speech" allegation.)

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I don't think it will happen either; they surely know there's no way to justify it. But I can see how many (including the ACLU) thought it was uncomfortably close to the line.

Agreed - I think there's a "taste" element (or maybe even risk tolerance), and there's definitely a range of reasonable reactions to it (all of which think it's varying degrees of bad/silly).