Prosecutor fired for going to "white preservationist" conference

[isomin at gmu.edu]

First, as a matter of empirical fact, communists and communist regimes have often persecuted individual religious believers, property owners, members of particular ethinc groups etc., not just eliminated policies favorable to these people. There is a large empiricalliterature on this. And I'm not sure that such a distinction even makes sense anyway. After all, white supremacists could say that they aren't persecuting individuals nonwhites, but merely seeking to change policies that they think unduly favor nonwhite interests at the expense of whites (and some do in fact say just that).

Second, I don't see how white supremacy is not an ideology, but communism is, or how the latter necessarily has less impact on an officeholder's decisionmaking than the former. A policymaker committed to white supremacy may  use his discretion to promote policies that advance his white supremacist goals, and ditto for a communist one and his or her communist goals. My point is that a sufficiently great divergence between the official's ideological goals and those the office should be promoting (and in some cases is required to promote by law) should be a disqualification for that office. And certainly, the divergence between communist objectives and those of a free society, is large enough to justify firing communists from positions with any significant discretionary authority.

Finally, if Yvette accepts that the communist officeholder's superiors may fire him for being a communist without any constitutional objection, then the difference between
us is narrowed. I would add merely that they can also refuse to hire him in the first place (and ditto for the white supremacist). I am not arguing that the constitution requires firing either, merely that it permits it.

Ilya Somin
Assistant Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
ph: 703-993-8069
fax: 703-993-8202
e-mail: isomin at gmu.edu
Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~isomin/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barksdale, Yvette" <7barksda at jmls.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 4, 2006 4:13 pm
Subject: RE: RE: Prosecutor fired for going to "white preservationist" conference

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