A Cancel Culture Bench Trial

Background:  A lot of regular citizens and civil servants don’t know this, so it’s important to repeat:  as an individual you can boycott anyone you like.  Public agencies, however, are FORBIDDEN from organizing boycotts or punishing employees and vendors for their political views.  Sadly, quite a few lawyers don’t know this either, but for the last 50 years, Constitutional case law has squarely sided with freedom of expression.  If a public agency could terminate you, or end your vendor contract, based on something you say, it would have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights.  The state, effectively, would be able to control “approved” political and cultural opinion.  That would be China, not America.

Update:  we won’t know the verdict in our case for 60-90 days, but we believe the issues were fairly considered, and there’s a chance Claremont Unified School District will be enjoined from engaging in “viewpoint discrimination.”  Any decision about any vendor, for field trips or any other service, could not be made based on political views without legal penalties.  This would benefit all public employees and vendors in Southern California because it would serve as a caution to other civil servants considering boycotts.

The expensive and sad irony:  It’s taken seven years, and for almost all of that time, Claremont has tacitly admitted they were in the wrong.  Dr. Elsasser, Claremont’s superintendent, responding to several school principals after the “Twitter storm” in 2018, admitted that he didn’t even know how many parents had complained.  (We believe they only had proof of one parent.)  After a cabinet meeting with all principals, his assistant superintendent, Dr. Julie Olesniewicz, sent a group email  stating, “..we are asking that no CUSD school attend Riley’s Farm field trips.”  A letter from Claremont’s legal counsel, (Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo),  is a prime example of attorneys failing to understand what is called, in the law, “First Amendment retaliation.”  Cathie L. Fields, of their firm, wrote “Nothing in the First Amendment obligates the District to continue doing business with any individual or organization that makes public statements which are inimical to the District’s educational mission.”  Catch that?

• Express positive support for the Second Amendment?  “You can’t do business with us.”
• Express concern that Louis Farrakhan is a racist?   “You’re fired.”

When Claremont consulted their insurance attorneys, who were more thoroughly versed in the liability associated with such actions, they promptly pretended (and pretend to this day), that they never blacklisted us.  Nine other school districts realized their error and compensated us for our legal fees, but Claremont remains unwilling to admit its mistake.  I am beginning to think of our case as a very clear example of state gaslighting.  Claremont insists that no teacher is barred from attending our field trips, but when a teacher attempted to book a field trip here, after litigation began, it was cancelled promptly.

Our attorney, Bill Becker of Freedom X, who runs a one-man First Amendment public interest law firm dedicated to First Amendment rights, masterfully stated the issues in his closing arguments.  We pray those arguments are met with favor.  Seven years is a long time to wait.

Categorised in: Blacklist, Blacklisted

This post was written by Jim Riley