Attorney General Pamela Bondi swears to uphold the Constitution on February 20,, 2025
Critics are destroying U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for demanding businesses fire or punish employees who exercise free speech — after years of defending businesses’ right to deny customers with whom they disagree.
While speaking to Fox News on Monday, Bondi demanded a print business allow a customer to print posters for slain MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.
“If you want to go and print posters with Charlie's picture for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that. We have right now our civil rights unit looking at that,” Bondi told Fox.
But social media exploded at Bondi’s claim, with critics reminding Bondi that Republicans have championed businesses’ right to deny services to LGBTQ customers.
“Republicans fought hard for years for the right of businesses to refuse any job they want even if it was on the grounds of legally protected civil right status. They were also always lying. It was always a deliberate and knowing lie,” wrote Kyiv-based journalist Anthony Bartaway, on X.
“Masterpiece Cakeshop, there's a call on hold for you,” wrote First Amendment lawyer Adam Steinbaugh, referring to a Colorado cake shop that the Supreme Court declared had a right to deny service to a same-sex wedding.
“Declaring that a private business refusing to print a vigil poster for the President's friend is a civil rights violation is an interesting legal argument,” said news anchor Kyle Clark, also referring to Masterpiece Cake Shop, in Colorado.
Other free speech enthusiasts pounced on Bondi’s comment: “This is psychotic,” posted Reason magazine reporter Billy Binion on X. “The federal government cannot, in fact, prosecute you for refusing to print a message you disagree with — which was core to Republicans' ideology until all of 5 seconds ago. I am speechless.”
Binion later added that Bondi is “saying things on national television that someone would be able to debunk after taking intro to civics. It is not a good look for our country.”
“Fact check: they cannot, in fact, prosecute you for refusing to print Charlie Kirk's picture for a vigil,” posted First Amendment and defamation lawyer Ari Cohn, adding, “Pam Bondi's competence to practice law is very much in question.
Earlier, Bondi attempted to create a difference between “hate speech” and “free speech,” and warned that the federal government will “absolutely target” hate speech, to which commenter Robert Sterling responded “policing hate speech is not the government’s role.”
Free speech legal advocate organization TheFire.org also slapped Bondi’s comment, pointing out on X that “there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment.”
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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