Volokh, Eugene
Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:50:38 -0800
Any thoughts on whether there is a First Amendment problem here? I take it in the wake of Rutan, it's clear that Branti and Pickering apply to hiring and rehiring decisions as well. I think some lower courts also hold that these cases apply to volunteers and not just to employees. The tough question, I think, is what sorts of politician-appointed offices are subject to First Amendment constraints, and for which ones the appointing official has carte blanche (at least where the First Amendment is concerned); I'd love to hear what people think about this, and the other questions as well: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/20/BA151BKA16.DTL&type=printable A $26,000 contribution to the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California appears to have cost a 96-year-old former Mormon temple president his seat on the board that oversees Oakland's historic Paramount Theatre. Amid rising criticism from the gay community, Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that he was putting on hold the reappointment of Lorenzo Hoopes, most likely signaling an end to Hoopes' 30-plus years on the Paramount board. "The community is asking us to reconsider, and that is what we are going to do," mayoral spokesman Paul Rose said. Hoopes, a past president of the Mormon temple in Oakland as well as a former Safeway executive, has been on the Paramount board since before the downtown theater was restored in the early 1970s. Even if Dellums had gone forward with Hoopes' renomination, there was little chance the City Council would have approved it, council President Jane Brunner said. "A lot of us don't think that he represents our thinking in Oakland," Brunner said....
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