It’s the standard intolerant-tolerance from the left that led to the co-founder and CEO of Mozilla being forced to resign this week.

In 2008, Brendan Eich made a $1,000 contribution to support California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

So, Eich believes in traditional marriage. Did he use his position to mistreat or discriminate against Mozilla employees? According to reports, Eich actually wasn’t big on touting his personal beliefs in the workplace. Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s executive chairwoman, even said he practiced “Mozilla’s values of inclusiveness.”

Cue outrage!

However, this story goes deeper than the left’s usual practice of intolerant-tolerance and feigned outrage. It’s the complete and utter trampling of Eich’s liberty to speak freely and associate with like-minded people.

The left usually says the freedom of speech must be protected at all costs…until you disagree with the views being freely expressed, of course. And, yes, political contributions are considered part of our First Amendment free-speech rights, as recently ruled and opined by the US Supreme Court.

Where’s the outrage against Democrats like President Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, who also supported Prop 8 at the time? For the 7 million voters in California who voted to affirm the initiative?

Eich wasn’t a vigorous activist in the movement to maintain the traditional definition of marriage in his state, nor was he out spewing hate and vitriol toward people who are active in the LGBT movement…no, this national outrage comes down to one personal donation toward a ballot initiative.

Brendan Eich was bullied out of a company he co-founded because of a personal donation to a cause he personally supported.

These are precisely the kinds of intimidation tactics we have been wary of coming out of Obama’s IRS, and more locally, the Texas Ethics Commission.

What happened this week with Eich is not an isolated case; a post on Heritage’s The Foundry, notes that Prop 8 supporters all over California “have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, death threats, and anti-religious bigotry.”

The assault on Eich and other Californians parallels the kind of bullying tactics Joe Straus and the Ethics Commission wants to use here in Texas. And that’s why we’re fighting them every step of the way, protecting our supporters and their right to free speech.

As was reported yesterday, after a federal judge called the TEC’s subpoenas of our donor list and email conversations “absurd” and “overbroad” two weeks ago, Empower Texans was back in another pre-trial conference. A few things came out of that conference, aside from new and, um, “comprehensive” subpoenas.

The agency’s new “Director of Enforcement,” John Moore, accused Michael Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans of “hiding” behind the constitution. You read that correctly, exercising the rights we are blessed with as Americans is now “hiding.” That must be because, when dealing with the TEC, “the constitutional issues don’t matter.” At least that’s what Moore advised the commission.

Yep, that’s right. The “Ethics” Commission need not take those pesky little “constitutional issues” into consideration. That would make it a little more difficult to trample all over people’s rights, wouldn’t it?

As the constitution states, and the Supreme Court has upheld, citizens have a right to engage in anonymous speech and activity in this country. And, as Hans von Spakovsky notes on The Foundry, this “used to be considered common sense.”

Remember the US Supreme Court ruling in NAACP v. Alabama in 1958? The USSC ruled that Alabama was violating the Fourteenth Amendment and interfering with members’ rights of association when they subpoenaed the NAACP’s membership lists.

This is not the least bit different. Those with conservative beliefs are being subject to intimidation and harassment at the behest of government agencies and lawmakers who see those individuals as a threat.

The co-founder of Mozilla—the creator of JavaScript—was just bullied out of his position as the company’s CEO.

If Joe Straus and his friends on the Texas “Ethics” Commission have their way, they will enable the same type of harassment here in Texas.

“The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”

 William F. Buckley

Morgan Williamson

Morgan serves as the Managing Editor for Texas Scorecard—monitoring our media presence, both online and in print. She is a Texas native, Texas State graduate, and veteran staffer of the 83rd Texas Legislature. Aside from a good dose of editing & strategizing, Morgan enjoys proper grammar usage, a lot of coffee, and good company.

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