Marriott just fired an employee because she's a Democrat

[Jim Lane]

47. The "Mozilla" issue deserves more attention

Credit AngryAmish in #14 for pointing it out.

Back in April, Mozilla's CEO and co-founder, Brendan Eich, was sacked. The reason was the discovery that, six years earlier, he had donated $1,000 to the campaign in support of Prop8 in California.

Thus, an employer took action against an employee because the employee exercised his or her First Amendment right to try to influence the political process. If that's an unconscionable abuse of corporate power when done by Marriott, then it's an unconscionable abuse of corporate power when done by Mozilla.

Sure, most DUers consider marriage equality to be a moral issue. But conservatives also hold strong views that they characterize as moral. I doubt that the Osceola County Commission gets many abortion-related issues, for example, but there are plenty of offices for which a conservative-run company could say that preventing the murder of the unborn is a moral issue. Even the Osceola County Commission may do something like vote on tax increases, thus upsetting people who believe that taxation is theft.

I incline toward the view that the employee's political activities, not conducted on company time and not directly relating to the company's business, should not be a basis for dismissal. I don't think it's clear-cut, though. What is clear to me is that we can't make a principled distinction based on whether we agree with management's political position.