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Re:It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott by crazygringo on Saturday November 26, 2022 @08:24PM (#33759049)
You're correct in that the only area in the US where governments choose to award contracts in ways that are unrelated to performance is for diversity purposes.

But diversity isn't speech. E.g. if a business is black-owned or female-owned has nothing to do with their political speech/views.

And diversity is a unique case, related to protected classes, having to do with past explicit discrimination against these groups, and trying to remedy that to some small extent.

In any case, it has nothing whatsoever to do with political expression, and therefore nothing to do with the first amendment. And so no, it has nothing to do with left/right either.

Re:It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott by luckylion on Sunday November 27, 2022 @05:44AM (#33761984)
I believe that "diversity is our strength and therefore must be expanded" is speech. If you require companies to fulfill some diversity quota, you're doing so because of that belief. The idea itself is part of the current left's canon, so it certainly is political.

It's just something that most here do agree with, so they're fine with it.

Re:It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott by crazygringo on Sunday November 27, 2022 @10:04AM (#33763370)
No, you're mixing things up.

Yes that quote is political speech/belief. But it's the expression of the legislature on policy, that is democratically determined, whether you agree with it or not.

It's not the speech of minority-owned businesses. Awarding contracts to take diversity into account is based on who the businesses are owned by, *not* what those businesses say/believe.

You can disagree with awarding contracts based on diversity all you want, just don't claim that doing so has anything to do with free speech or the first amendment, because that's incorrect.

Re:It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott by luckylion on Sunday November 27, 2022 @11:26AM (#33764099)
And as far as I understand the policies, you don't need to be minority-owned. You need to have some diversity quota filled and/or promise to get it filled. Like a pledge to do something.

> Yes that quote is political speech/belief. But it's the expression of the legislature on policy, that is democratically determined, whether you agree with it or not.

The same applies to this case, where the democratically elected legislature says you don't get contracts if you say "don't buy from Jews" and passes laws to that effect.

Re:It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott by crazygringo on Monday November 28, 2022 @09:27AM (#33773969)
I'm sorry but you're continuing to spread pure misinformation, in case anybody else sees this.

Whether it's minority ownership or affirmative action in its workforce is irrelevant. Employment policy is policy around protected classes, it's not speech.

While your case of 'you don't get contracts if you say "don't buy from Jews"' makes contracts dependent upon speech. Which contradicts the first amendment.

The distinction is not complicated here. You might not like it, but the distinction exists.