Bloomberg and the ACLU Defend Chick Fil A

Well not really. They’re not really defending a narrow minded fast food chicken pusher. They’re defending the right to not have your beliefs and your freedom of speech interfere with your right to equal treatment by government officials. These comments, of course, come on the heels of the decision of Boston’s Mayor Menino to ban Chick Fil-A from the city– a decision later backed up by Mayors of Philadelphia and Chicago.

According to ACLU attorneys, the cities’ decisions not entirely legal and somewhat ironically, are a form of discrimination — “viewpoint discrimination”:

“The government can regulate discrimination in employment or against customers, but what the government cannot do is to punish someone for their words… When an alderman refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a viewpoint the government disagrees with, the government is practicing viewpoint discrimination.”

Read more about what the ACLU had to say at inquisitr.com.

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg agreed.

“It’s inappropriate for a city government, or a state government, or the federal government to look at somebody’s political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city,” the mayor said on his Friday morning radio show.

Read more of Bloomberg’s comments at nytimes.com. You can also read other opinions of Constitutional law experts on the issue at foxnews.com.