CHICK-FIL-A – THE STORY GROWS - AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  I must say that I'm enjoying the Chick Fil-A story because it demonstrates how sensitive so many Americans are to the Constitution.  That's encouraging, and inspiring.

To summarize, Chick Fil-A is a fast-food chain run by its founder, an evangelical Christian who puts his money where his mouth is.  The chain is closed on Sunday out of respect for the Christian Sabbath.  And the CEO, Dan Cathy,is outspoken in support of traditional marriage.  He opposes gay marriage.

That opposition to gay marriage has gotten Cathy plenty of heat.  Okay, fair enough.  People can criticize.  But the criticism got out of hand when several public officials tried to have the chain banned from their cities.  First, the mayor of Boston expressed opposition to the chain being in his sanctified city.  Then Rahm Emanuel pronounced that Chick Fil-A does not represent "Chicago values."  This occurred a few days before Emanuel invited Louis Farrakhan, a world-class hatemonger, to participate in anti-crime programs.  I guess Farrakhan is closer to "Chicago values."

And then the city council president in New York, who herself is involved in a gay marriage, and who is running for mayor next year, asked New York University to ban Chick Fil-A from its campus.  The mayor of Washington, D.C. tweated that the chain represented "hate chicken." 

Even traditional leftists have become alarmed by these developments.  The ACLU has come out against this kind of intimidation.  The mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, has backtracked.  Rahm appears to be hedging. 

We love to needle New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, for some of his goofy ideas, but on some issues Bloomie gets it right.  He's supported the effective stop 'n' frisk policies of the Police Department, and now he's come out strongly against attempts to ban Chick Fil-A over its CEO's religious beliefs.  From the New York Post:   

Critics trying to shut Chick-fil-A because its CEO opposes gay marriage are undermining the very essence of the Constitution, Mayor Bloomberg declared today in a stirring defense of the embattled fast food chain.

"It isn't the right thing to do and it isn't what America stands for," Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show. "And those people who don't like (Chick-fil-A) don't understand their rights were protected by people who took a difficult position in the past and stood by it. They stood up so everybody else would be free."

The mayor, a staunch advocate of marriage equality, argued that Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy has as much right to his views as does the Catholic Church, which also opposes same-sex marriage.

"I don't agree with this guy. I don't agree with the position of the Catholic Church. That doesn't mean I don't have an enormous amount of respect for the two Cardinals we have here and the clergy and the people who are Catholic," said Bloomberg.

"What's for sure is that government cannot in the United States, in America, under the Constitution, be run where you have a litmus test for the personal views of somebody when they want something in the commercial world."

COMMENT:  Bloomberg is correct, and has stated the case better than anyone I've seen.  Here is a case where advocacy groups have gone much too far.  I'm gratified by the number of public figures who've stood up for the right thing.  But I fear that damage will be done when universities get into the act, and throw Chick Fil-A off their campuses, which I'm sure some will do.

August 3, 2012