Guardsman, peace-loving landlady are at odds over apartment rental

bostonherald.com ^ | 06/04/2012 | Laurel J. Sweet

[Mister Da]

I would thank the lady for alerting me to a loony bin, & say goodbye. However ignorant her views, at least she was honest & upfront. Beyond that, her attitude is unpatriotic & un-American, & she should be scorned & ridiculed.

Many of us here would prefer to use the same tactic when dealing with flaming fags.

[Blue Ink]

“Maybe the phrase “equal protection under the law” has something to do with it?”

The vet has equal protection under the law — he is free in turn to discriminate against anyone who, say, didn’t serve in the armed forces.

What he doesn’t have is the right to make the landlady enter into a contract against her will. She doesn’t want to. She doesn’t like him. The Constitution demands nothing more.

And why is behavior-based discrimination okay in your book but not that based on a “legitimate status?” (Whatever that means.)

If it’s okay to discriminate because someone is a bad credit risk, than it MUST be okay to discriminate based on, say, someone’s political beliefs. Otherwise, “freedom of association” means whatever some judge says it means.

[CSM]

“As offensive as her attitude is, as far as I am concerned, she should be able to discriminate against whomever she chooses for whatever reason she chooses.”

I agree with you in principle, but I have to admit that it is nice to see someone hoisted on the PC petard that never expected it....

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Whether they do or not won’t matter in a lawsuit. The federal law about fair housing for veterans goes back to post World War I, and the VA as well as the Pentagon get very shirty about veterans being mistreated.

Not a whole lot of press about it, but there was a lot of discrimination against vets by employers in recent years, and the Pentagon came down on them like a ton of bricks in court. Even some of the states that have tried slapping vets with back taxes have backed off in a hurry when the Pentagon gets involved.

I suspect that if this vet pushes it, and preserved that voice mail, he is going to get some big bucks out of this woman.