Compelled Speech in Ann Arbor

Suppressing speech isn’t repressive enough. True totalitarianism features compelled speech. People are forced to express views they are opposed to in benighted tyrannies such as Russia under Stalin, China under Mao, and Ann Arbor, Michigan under the moonbats running it now:

The Ann Arbor non-discrimination law is extremely broad and open to abuse. The law defines a “place of public accommodation” to include any “business … whose goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations are extended, offered, sold or otherwise made available to the public.” Any such company is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of political beliefs.

They used to say that when tyranny comes to America, it will arrive brandishing a Bible and a flag. They were wrong. It has arrived bleating piteously about discrimination.

Thankfully, someone is pushing back.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of a conservative political consulting firm, warning that an Ann Arbor non-discrimination law would force that firm to parrot liberal messages and help Democrats get elected. If they refuse, they could get hit with fines of $500 per day. ADF is representing Grant Strobl and Jacob Chludzinski, founders of the company ThinkRight Strategies.

Nondiscrimination has been used as a pretext for tyranny before. The malicious persecution of Christian bakers and florists is an obvious example. Ann Arbor’s demented law could throw this thuggery into overdrive.

It isn’t only conservative consultants like Strobl and Chludzinski who might find themselves enslaved to their ideological opponents. Theoretically, anyone might be forced to say anything, lest they be found guilty of discrimination. As ADF Legal Counsel Samuel Green notes of the law,

“It could be used to require a Democrat to write speeches for President Trump or a pacifist painter to paint pro-war murals. It could force a pro-life painter to produce a mural for Planned Parenthood.”

Realistically speaking, however, experience indicates that the bullying will only go one way — in favor of forcing conservatives to mouth moonbattery.

On a tip from Eddie_Valiant.

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