1st Amendment Restricts Government, Not Private Citizens

found online by Raymond

 
From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

“I’m struggling these days with the First Amendment. I’ve always been a strong supporter, but lately, not so much.”

That’s how Lawrence N. Meyerson starts his New Jersey Star-Ledger guest column of 11/6/17. (Free speech: Where do we draw the line?).

As the title and opening lines suggest, Meyerson seems to be calling for rolling back First Amendment protections. But in the following paragraphs, Meyerson approvingly documents cases in which private establishments open to the public have restricted or banned “offensive” symbols and language.

For example, in 1970, a security guard in Disneyland ordered Meyerson, then a young college student, “to turn my shirt inside out so that the name ‘Oar House’ would be hidden. Apparently, the name was too suggestive for Disney.” More recently, Meyerson’s wife observed a passenger at LaGuardia Airport “wearing a pair of jeans with a swastika knee patch. . . . Neither of us could fathom why an airline would allow this person on the plane.”

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