[grasshopper2]

I think we should be concerned about incidents like this. For better or for worse, the private shopping mall has replaced our "public square." These men were wearing shirts with a political message and apparently they were thrown out of the "public square" because the private owners didn't like the message.

What if the T-shirts read "Jesus loves you"?

or "support our troops"

or "abortion stops a beating heart"

Unless the message is profane, obscene, or libelous to individuals or groups, then we should protect the expression even though it's a private shopping mall. This is because the private shopping mall *is* our public square.

The mall put main street out of business, and therefore has a responsiblity to permit the political discourse that once occurred on main street in the public square.

A better solution is for communities to simply zone out covered shopping malls as health hazards or something like that.

[fellowpatriot]

Read the report in post 7 to see what actually happened. These guys didn't get thrown out for their t-shirts though that's the way the media portrays it.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Unless the message is profane, obscene, or libelous to individuals or groups, then we should protect the expression even though it's a private shopping mall. This is because the private shopping mall *is* our public square.

Nope. Private is private, and only socialists try to blur the distinction. Malls have developed as private enterprises and largely replaced "Main Street" because that's what free market consumers want. One of the things they want is to shop in a place where a private security force enforced stricter standards than are enforced on Main Street.

Socialists tried to make the same sort of arguments about the Boy Scouts, bringing up all sorts of reasons why they should be classified as subject to laws which are only applicable to public entities, and should lose the right to set their own membership requirements, just because they got very big and successful.

[jwalsh07]

For better or for worse, the private shopping mall has replaced our "public square." These men were wearing shirts with a political message and apparently they were thrown out of the "public square" because the private owners didn't like the message.

Aieeeee!

While I think the t-shirt thing is stupidity, your post sent shivers up my spine. Private businesses are private.