Walmart to the Rescue!
December 18, 2008
Many of you will now be familiar with the local story that's gone round the world, about the gent who was refused service as ShopRite when he requested a birthday cake with the name of his little boy, Adolf Hitler Campbell (no relation of our own Iain D., I am sure) on it. This should not have been a surprise as, two years ago, the same store refused to make Mr Campbell a cake with a swastika on it. You can read the story over at Arianna Huffington's place here. (I could have given the Fix News link, but that would be against my religion).
What interested me in the news reports last night was the hopelessly confused misunderstanding many people in the US seem to have of their own Constitution. Not only was Mr Campbell claiming that this infringed his First Amendment right to free speech, but it seemed that a majority of callers to the call-in to which I listened agreed with him. Well, here's Constitution 101: the First Amendment stops the government from policing your speech; it doesn't stop shops, private colleges, seminaries, denominations etc. from refusing to employ or serve those with whom they disagree. You'd be surprised how few people really understand this, as recent discussions even in the blog pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education, a supposedly elite intellectual journal, indicate.
The First Amendment is irrelevant here. Nobody from Washington stopped this ridiculous family from giving the names they wished to their kids (their one child has the middle name `Aryan Nation' -- hmm, Hitler, swastikas, Aryan Nation -- maybe I'm hallucinating, but I see a pattern emerging here...... Still, as they assured us on the TV, some of their best friends are - well, you get the picture). And, while certain groups do enjoy special protections under the law which would prevent, for example, a store refusing to serve someone on the grounds of skin colour, last time I looked, the `Protected Status of Offensive Plonkers who Name their Kids after Nazi War Criminals and Racist Organisations Act' had been stalled by Congress until further notice.
As the British often say: Only in America, folks! And as the late great Kenny Everett's character used to sign-off, `It's all done in the best POSSIBLE taste!!!' Oh, and the story ends with good ol' Walmart riding to the rescue, not so much as champions of free speech as of free enterprise. Little Adi will have his cake and, presumably, eat it.
What interested me in the news reports last night was the hopelessly confused misunderstanding many people in the US seem to have of their own Constitution. Not only was Mr Campbell claiming that this infringed his First Amendment right to free speech, but it seemed that a majority of callers to the call-in to which I listened agreed with him. Well, here's Constitution 101: the First Amendment stops the government from policing your speech; it doesn't stop shops, private colleges, seminaries, denominations etc. from refusing to employ or serve those with whom they disagree. You'd be surprised how few people really understand this, as recent discussions even in the blog pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education, a supposedly elite intellectual journal, indicate.
The First Amendment is irrelevant here. Nobody from Washington stopped this ridiculous family from giving the names they wished to their kids (their one child has the middle name `Aryan Nation' -- hmm, Hitler, swastikas, Aryan Nation -- maybe I'm hallucinating, but I see a pattern emerging here...... Still, as they assured us on the TV, some of their best friends are - well, you get the picture). And, while certain groups do enjoy special protections under the law which would prevent, for example, a store refusing to serve someone on the grounds of skin colour, last time I looked, the `Protected Status of Offensive Plonkers who Name their Kids after Nazi War Criminals and Racist Organisations Act' had been stalled by Congress until further notice.
As the British often say: Only in America, folks! And as the late great Kenny Everett's character used to sign-off, `It's all done in the best POSSIBLE taste!!!' Oh, and the story ends with good ol' Walmart riding to the rescue, not so much as champions of free speech as of free enterprise. Little Adi will have his cake and, presumably, eat it.
