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Hacktacular!

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Elizabeth Foley upholds the standards one would expect of a poster at Instapundit.   According to Foley, a civil rights lawsuit filed against Joe Arpaio shows that liberals hate free speech:

Let me get this straight. It’s a violation of federal civil rights law now to use derogatory slang or express your opinion about things?  Hmmmm….. First Amendment anyone?  Oh, that’s right: progressives think “hate speech” is outside the ambit of the First Amendment.  The present Administration’s culture of intimidation continues…..

First of all, Foley fails to understand that, at least in the United States, liberals generally see “hate speech” as being protected by the First Amendment.  (cf. the recent Supreme Court decision protecting the rights of Fred Phelps, in which the only dissenter was that well-known radical liberal Sam Alito.)   So if Arpaio was being sued for saying racist things, this would indeed be problematic.

But what is Arpaio actually being sued for?  Why don’t we do what Foley definitely doesn’t want you to do, and click the link she provides:

Federal authorities allege that Arpaio and his office have unconstitutionally and unlawfully targeted Latinos during traffic stops and during crime suppression operations. DOJ alleges that MCSO unlawfully detained Latino drivers and passengers and conducted unconstitutional searches and seizures in addition to illegally targeting Latino workers during worksite raids.

So, in fact, Arpaio is not being sued for saying racist things.   He’s being sued for racist conduct that violates federal civil rights law and the 4th and 14th Amendments.  Laws cannot be enforced in a racially discriminatory manner.  This conduct is, to state the blindingly obvious, not protected by the First Amendment.   The fact that Arpaio has written racist things can be used as evidence that he has violated the civil rights of individuals, but the racist writings themselves are not illegal and nobody is saying otherwise.   And the neoconfederate stuff about how enforcing civil rights laws and the Constitution reflects a “culture of intimidation” is a nice touch.

In other words, Foley is definitely somebody who should be posting at Instapundit.

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