Dartblog

As Jenn introduced earlier today, Deroy Murdock, a syndicated columnist and contributing editor with National Review Online spoke today to Dartmouth students. The topic of Murdock’s talk was the right of Americans to freedom of association, or to peaceably assemble as the right is phrased in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. If this right is to mean anything, Murdock argued, it must also include the right to choose not to associate. In short, free people must be free to choose.

Murdock spoke about the constitutional basis for this right, namely the 1st and 9th Amendments as well as fundamental notions such as liberty, sovereignty, and personal autonomy.

Presenting the example of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission litigation against the Hooters restaurant chain, a 20/20 special showed at the talk highlighted the particular brand of absurdity. In this case the EEOC said that the restaurant must hire more men as waiters, which customers roundly agreed would defeat the purpose (or at very least distinctiveness) of the restaurant. Among other means of reparation, the EEOC wanted the chain to set up scholarship funds for men and training sessions for employees to learn how to be more sensitive to men. Of course the chain would also be required to hire more men, despite a lack of applications. Thankfully, in the end, public pressure brought an end to the suit.

From examples such as an airline forced to rehire a pilot jailed for flying drunk to a Lutheran classical music radio station sued to hire outside their Lutheran-classical music- liking hiring pool, Murdock’s talk argued that society has come far from the original aim of stamping out racial discrimination to egregiously violating the principle of free association. Private associations and people, according to Murdock, should be constitutionally and normatively permitted to associate, or not associate, with whomever they please.

Students were very much engaged by the thought-provoking talk, evidenced by the excited flurry of comments and questions afterwards. In my mind a most successful event.