Conservative Firm Suing City of Ann Arbor for Forcing It To Promote Leftist Beliefs
Yet another anti-discrimination law, likely with good intentions, is going into effect in this country.
The new perpetrator is Ann Arbor, Michigan, which passed a law banning businesses from denying service based on virtually any grounds, from race to political opinion. It comes with a $500 fine per day for refusal to comply.
This sounds nice, but it poses quite a threat to businesses, especially those of a certain brand. The Alliance Defending Freedom realized this and jumped in to file a lawsuit on behalf of a conservative political consulting firm, as reported by PJ Media.
Grant Strobl and Jacob Chludzinski, founders of the firm ThinkRight Strategies, were concerned with the implication that they could be forced to help elect Democrats.
Obviously, this is antithetical to the entire purpose of their business and blatantly violates their freedoms of speech, expression and association.
“On the face of the law, it is illegal for Grant and Jacob to decline a request to promote, for example, a Democrat running for office or Planned Parenthood because that would be discrimination based on political beliefs under the law,” ADF Legal Counsel Samuel Green said.
This law comes after high-profile cases thrust religious freedom into the spotlight, namely those of baker Jack Phillips and florist Barronelle Stutzman, who both refused to service same-sex weddings.
Of course, we can’t assume malicious intent, and it could even be true that the law included “political belief” as a protected category in response to incidences of businesses expelling or refusing service to conservative customers.
Despite their possible influence on this law, none of these cases matter here.
The legislators of this law were likely ignorant to the true danger that it poses for those whose services are political in nature.
The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect religious and political action, which create the very bedrock of a free Republican society. You can’t claim to have free elections if political speech is hindered.
Likewise, that political speech might be offensive to some, which is fine. A Bill of Rights is only necessary to protect the rights of the minority, because a majority can cram down popular viewpoints in a country with a government like ours.
For example, the phrase “I love to pet puppies” isn’t under fire simply because it’s an inoffensive common viewpoint. The majority approves; therefore, protecting it under law is only necessary in theory, not practice.
On the other hand, Strobl and Chludzinski created a business with the sole purpose of promoting their political speech and helping conservative candidates get elected. Since they are a business, they would be required by Ann Arbor law to remove ads and internal policies that discriminate against any political viewpoint, including leftism.
This, in practice, threatens the very basic, fundamental operations of the greatest political system ever designed by man.
This swings both ways, too. I don’t want ThinkRight to be forced to support Democrats, nor do I want a liberal speechwriter to be forced to craft an address for President Donald Trump.
The fact that I agree with the plaintiff’s political positions is completely irrelevant in this case. This law is an abomination that should scare both the left and right alike, but the left needs to do some serious soul-searching on what exactly their party intends to stand for.
Why is that? Because Ann Arbor is undoubtedly a left-leaning place. The city council that passed this law consists of nine Democrats and one Independent, and the Democratic mayor even has an LGBTQ liaison on staff. This policy came straight out of leftist thought-policing, even if it does potentially hamstring their allies.
Laws like these are what happen when radical leftism goes unchecked. They draft a law that seems benign on the surface but has dark undertones of using force to prohibit or compel expression.
They are, dare I say it, un-American.
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