Why should you care about the fury around Dan Cathy’s, President of Chick-Fil-a, comments upholding “traditional family values”?  You should care because when the government begins to threaten legitimate businesses and their opportunities for expansion on the basis of the personal belief of its leadership, we will all eventually suffer.  What starts with denying business expansion will eventually make its way into also denying churches the right to endorse certain “traditional family values” and any other value(s) that may run counter to the beliefs of a governing official.   Eventually, it is this type of government tyranny that will lead to individual liberties being denied and all violators will feel the boot of government’s wrath. It is this type of thug-government approach is exactly the type of limits on personal liberties that the founders of our country sought to be rescued from.

Thankfully there is a growing chorus of writers denouncing strong arm tactics by government officials.  Michael Barone summarizes a number of pundits criticizing the mayors of Boston and now Chicago for seeking to deny business licenses to Chick-fil-A because its owners uphold a traditional family values (which necessarily excludes same-sex marriage).

Their point is simple, and based on Supreme Court rulings: it’s wrong and unconstitutional under the First Amendment for government to deny business licenses because of an applicant’s speech and beliefs. As the Globe rightly notes, “If the mayor of a conservative town tried to keep out gay-friendly Starbucks or Apple, it would be an outrage.”

As a conservative on most issues and a supporter of same-sex marriage, I find it fascinating that liberal politicians are so ready to clamp down on others’ speech. It’s certainly permissible to refuse to patronize a restaurant because you dislike the owner’s beliefs and to encourage, by means short of violence or intimidation, others to do so. It’s also kind of foolish and in my view would be a waste of time to have to research owners’ or managers’ political views before going somewhere to eat. But for public officials to penalize people because of their expressed beliefs—well, I wouldn’t go as far as blogger Elizabeth Scalia does when she titles a blogpost “this is how fascism works,” but it’s pretty nasty stuff.

Read the whole story via Gene Veith.