Office Depot Apologizes to Woman Over Anti-Abortion Fliers

AP/ABC ^ | 9/11/15

[markomalley]

The CEO of Office Depot apologized Friday to a suburban Chicago woman who said the company discriminated against her religious beliefs when its employees told her that making copies of an anti-abortion prayer violated company policy.

Maria Goldstein, who is Roman Catholic, asked the Office Depot in Schaumburg last month to make 500 copies of "A Prayer for Planned Parenthood."

[markomalley]

Office Depot has the right to say what may be duplicated and for whom the duplicating is done, just as a bakery should be able to determine what kind of cakes they bake and for whom they bake them.

Apparently the Office Depot CEO did not want to have the company see the same fate as JC Penney...

[Guenevere]

Trying to understand your post?

The woman is prolife......

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Office Depot has the right to say what may be duplicated and for whom the duplicating is done, just as a bakery should be able to determine what kind of cakes they bake and for whom they bake them.

Well, either that, or they don't have the right...just like the bakery.

[jobim]

As a prolife activist Catholic, I agree with you: private property rights are sacrosanct.

[hosepipe]

Office Depot is outted.. as democrat/rino controlled..

What a stupid move to even mention this subject pro or con..
FROM the TOP..

Ideologues run Office Depot..

[Shimmer1]

And I have the right not to bring my business to them. And I won’t.

[ConorMacNessa]

I must respectfully differ, Brother - political speech is not a wedding cake.

It is not Staples' rights that are in question. They provide, through print services, a public forum for dissemination of information, protected under the First Amendment.

I may not like what someone has to say, but I cannot stop them from saying it.

But I don't have to cook the hors d'ouevres for their victory party.



Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks markomalley.

[Grams A]

I thought Staples was buying out Office Depot. We quit buying supplies for our office at Office Depot last year when they launched an anti-bullying programs in schools, particularly to protect LGTB students. My dil said she went into Office Depot recently to buy some printer toner which she needed in an emergency and their stock of supplies was pretty sparse and not much variety.

[9YearLurker]

I don’t see how what is said on a cake is any more or less a freedom of speech issue than what is said with a copying machine. They both involve private businesses, and either do or do not have the right to determine what they produce.

The First Amendment involves limiting the government’s right to squelch speech—something quite different.

[Robwin]

I don't think the purported parallel between the cake and the flyer is valid.

Baking a cake or doing the floral arrangements is a direct participation in the event. Printing the flyers does not indicate approval nor does it require acquiescence in the sentiments. It merely means one copies the flyers.

It sounds to me like the particular store she went to either had a manager or staffer who misunderstood his authority or was just plain anti-ProLife.

[healy61]

I will avoid them for a while. I will drop them a line and tell them why.

[FreedomNotSafety]

You contradicted yourself. The prolife women cannot be stopped but Depot doesn’t have to do the cooking either.

They do not provide a public forum because they are a private business just like the baker. You 1st Amendment rights does not guarantee you a forum.

What Depot did was despicable but I support their right to do it.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Its a private business and they should be able to choose with whom they do business.Because of their position I choose never to darken the door ever again.

[DavidLSpud]

I made my protest call.
Probably many on FR did also.
It is not just us...they FEAR THE COMING RIGHTEOUS

STORM. ...pray that Jehovah forgives OUR COORPORATE
(National) sin and that HE still has us in HIS PLAN.

IF we are a part of Jehovah’s Plan, Golith is a dead man walking .

[HKMk23]

“I don’t see how what is said on a cake is any more or less a freedom of speech issue than what is said with a copying machine.”

Then let me help you out:
On the wedding cake, a human being called a baker has to write the words on the cake, and those words may be a declaration of something that runs counter to the tenets of their faith.

On a copying machine, the machine — which has no rights at all, nor any convictions to offend — has to reproduce pages of text that you brought in pre-done. NOBODY at Office Depot is being forced to produce text that includes any sort of declaration(s) they object to.

[Kickass Conservative]

Office Depot and Office Max Merged.

Didn’t hear anything about Staples.

[jobim]

I am having trouble comprehending your logic.

I have a private eneterprise. Whatever takes place in my private enterprise is up to my discretion. If someone comes in to make flyers promoting an Islamist Jihad, I retain the right to reject that business. If I am a corporate Liberal Progressive entity, I retain the right to reject the business of Christians. At least in my definition of property rights.

There used to be a sign: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE BUSINESS TO ANYONE (That is property rights freedom).

[Shimmer1]

I made my call. I calmly stated that they had the right to turn down business.
I had the right to avoid their company, and I would be doing so.

[Gene Eric]

So you support the limitation of speech by operations afforded tax exemptions by virtue of what that operation prints?