Office Depot Stands By Employee’s Refusal to Make Copies of a Pro-Life Prayer

National Review ^ | 09/12/2015 | David French

[SeekAndFind]

An Office Depot in Illinois last month refused to print copies of a flyer that contained facts about Planned Parenthood (mostly taken from Planned Parenthood’s own annual report) along with a pro-life prayer, and the company is standing by that decision in the face of legal threats:

Last month, Maria Goldstein, a Roman Catholic, asked employees at an Office Depot location in Schaumburg, Ill., to make 500 copies of “A Prayer for Planned Parenthood”, the Associated Press reported . . . Company spokeswoman Karen Denning tells the Chicago Tribune that Office Depot prohibits the copying of material that advocates “the persecution of certain groups of people,” among other criteria. She says the flier “contained material that advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.”

Does it advocate the persecution of pro-abortion Americans? You be the judge:

First, my opinion on these matters is pretty clear: private companies can choose which messages they choose to help disseminate, and they have that right even when they make terrible, idiotic choices. Consequently, I hope the customer, Maria Goldstein, chooses not to file a human rights complaint — especially since the company apparently offered to let her use the self-service copier.

Second, since it’s now clear that Office Depot supports the First Amendment rights of private corporations – even when those First Amendment rights conflict with the desires of members of a protected class (in this case, a person of faith sharing a religious message) – I eagerly await its corporate amicus briefs supporting bakers in Oregon and Colorado who are facing crushing fines or mandatory ideological re-education for exercising the exact same rights that Office Depot so proudly exercises.

Third, I’m sure that I’ll be waiting a long time. I have no expectation that Office Depot — or most of its supporters — show the slightest intellectual integrity on this matter. After all, this is the same company that in 2012 partnered with Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” Foundation to help launch the school year. I suspect Office Depot decision-makers are leftists, not civil libertarians, and thus their philosophy is likely summed up by the old saying, “free speech for me, but not for thee.” We’ll see if my cynicism is rewarded.

[Gen.Blather]

My last trip to Office Depot.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.

Federal Court ....

send the case to the same “bastard” Judges who ordered “mandatory re-education counseling” to the Christian florists and bake shop owners who refused to bake a cake for the sodomites ...

.

[ecomcon]

Persecution?

[high info voter]

Nothing like stifling freedom of speech...... they’re off my list.

[choctaw man]

Yet another example of the undoing of the USA.

[freedomfiter2]

Same here. We can’t win a culture war by arming the enemy.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/11/office-depot-apologizes-for-discrimination-against-pro-life-prayer/

[lucky american]

Look, we can’t have it both ways.
If florists and bakers must provide a service in spite of their beliefs, the printer must do the same.

The left is already spinning this . our laws must remain consistent or we have no law.

[hondact200]

So Office depot recants, apologizes and than what the next person comes along and Office depot will do the same thing over and over again. office Depot only will bow to pressure when conservatives say enough to the political correctness crappola!

[Gen.Blather]

“Look, we can’t have it both ways.”

I’m not asking for both ways. I can decide what companies to purchase products from and they have helped me to decide.

A baker, wedding planner, barber, should all be able to decide whether to serve somebody or not. But the consumer can decide whether or not to purchase as well. I no longer, for example, buy anything from Starbucks or Progressive Insurance.

[silverleaf]

There is no advocacy here for persecution
Now let’s see bakers and florists have the same rights to refuse services for ceremonies to which they object

If cakes and flowers are a public accommodation, so are printing services

[madison10]

Why was it the employee’s business to read what was being copied? It’s not as if said employee had to bake a cake or take a picture, it wasn’t something he/she/it created.

Where’s the megafine?

[X-spurt]

OD ‘sort of’ apologized. For her perceived religious discrimination, not for their claim of persecution of certain groups refusal.

OD will hear from me personally and should from anyone concerned with this.

OD, as with any other business should have to live with the rules the liberals forced upon us all. If the copying is not illegal, they should not be able to refuse to provide the publically offered service.

[FR_addict]

Yep. We have the right to boycott too.

[FR_addict]

“Why was it the employee’s business to read what was being copied? It’s not as if said employee had to bake a cake or take a picture, it wasn’t something he/she/it created.”

I was wondering about that too. Do they read everything submitted. It doesn’t look like there were any pictures to focus the eye.

[Gen.Blather]

“Yep. We have the right to boycott too.”

Cab companies and pizza delivery will not come to some neighborhoods. So far they’ve managed to make it stick as they’ve all had people robbed or killed in those neighborhoods. When it becomes impossible to deny service many companies will go out of business.

[Williams]

I hope she sues their asses off and boycott them as well.

Did you catch their policy that they don’t support the “persecution of CERTAIN people”? Abortionists are on that list.You are not.You can be persecuted.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Staples, here we come! Or, FedEx Office, here we come!

[Carl Vehse]

Office Depot low-lifes don’t have to print for sale to copies of pro-life prayers, but bakers are forced to sell cakes celebrating queer “marriages.”

The hypocrisy of leftists is only exceeded by their treason.