Saturday, July 8, 2017

An Echo from the Past

I'm placidly reading Instapundit on a quiet Saturday afternoon in Western Wyoming when I see a link to a story about my long-time employer, colloquially known as "Chico State," more formally it's California State University, Chico. This I don't expect.

The Heatstreet story reports employee SJWs there removed copies of the student newspaper, The Orion, from the Student Health Center because they believed an article therein might be "triggering" for transgender or other fragile individuals. This behavior was praised by several employees, including faculty.

It turns out the SHC broke State law in so doing. CA state law prohibits removing multiple copies of a free newspaper in order to prohibit the dissemination of ideas, ruling it a misdemeanor.
Penal Code section 490.6 The Legislature finds that free newspapers provide a key source of information to the public, in many cases providing an important alternative to the news and ideas expressed in other local media sources. The Legislature further finds that the unauthorized taking of multiple copies of free newspapers, whether done to sell them to recycling centers, to injure a business competitor, to deprive others of the opportunity to read them, or for any other reason, injures the rights of readers, writers, publishers, and advertisers, and impoverishes the marketplace of ideas in California.

I expect Democrat supermajorities in the state legislature to revoke this law in their next session. A politically correct state can't have heretical thought lying around in free newspapers where some poor snowflake might read it and melt down.