T-Shirt Trauma: Pro-AZ SB1070 Shirts Caused Commotion in Maryland, Mall Owner Has Apologized for Letter Forbidding Sale of Shirts (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 21, 2010
Here’s the “Maryland Stands with Arizona” T-shirt that caused some commotion this past week in Maryland.
This pro-Arizona T-shirt, showing support for the AZ SB1070 illegal immigration law, caused some problems for the Maryland store owner selling them
All is well now, and the First Amendment was only slightly bruised… apparently, the mall owner said his letter initially condemning the shirts as “goods with derogatory or offensive political messages” was sent in error and “didn’t go through proper channels.” Trampling on freedom of speech by suggesting the T-shirts were racist was just an accident — oops.
Score one more for Arizona, the Constitution, and the upholding of our nation’s immigration laws. Each victory, no matter how small, is important and must be embraced.
From KTAR AZ News, Maryland mall owner admits error in immigration flap:
FREDERICK, Md. – The owner of a Frederick shopping mall has apologized for telling a merchant he was violating his lease by selling T-shirts supporting Arizona-style immigration enforcement, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The letter to James Kehoe, owner of the Antietam Gallery framing shop at Francis Scott Key Mall, was sent in error, said Judy Trias, vice president of retail marketing.
“It just didn’t go through proper channels,” she said.
The shirts bear the slogan, “Maryland stands with Arizona,” beneath pictures of the states’ flags. Kehoe said he started selling the shirts in late August to his mostly conservative customer base.
On Sept. 2, the mall’s owner, Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, sent Kehoe a letter stating the shirts “may be regarded as inflammatory and/or racist,” and that they violated the shop’s lease terms limiting it to selling only prints and framing.
The letter also said the shirts may be considered “goods with derogatory or offensive political messages,” another lease violation.
Kehoe disputed the claims in a letter he also sent to The Frederick News-Post. The newspaper’s report Saturday on the issue helped launch a weekend run on the T-shirts, Kehoe said.
Kehoe told the News-Post he got an apologetic call Monday from R. Scott Petrie, PREIT’s vice president of retail management.
“He said the letter didn’t follow their normal vetting process, and he thought I had every right in the world to sell the T-shirt,” Kehoe said.
Trias confirmed that Petrie apologized to Kehoe.
She said PREIT officials were not aware of the Sept. 2 letter until they received Kehoe’s response late last week. She said it is not the company’s policy to censor merchandise based on its political message.
“I think someone maybe got a little overzealous and thought that was what they were supposed to do,” she said.
Freedom of speech has improved a teensy bit for conservatives, tea party attendees, and Americans who don’t support illegal immigration or the federal government’s lack of enforcement of federal law.
It was just last summer that kiosk owner Loren Spivack was banned and booted from a mall in North Carolina for selling critical Obama T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Video rewind from Summer 2009…
Paltalk.com News – Kiosk Owner Tossed From Mall For Selling Anti-Obama T-Shirts | 2009
Additional reading on DREAM Act, illegal immigration, and AZ SB1070:
Boston Globe: Brown critical of Democratic plans for immigration bill
Seth McLaughlin, NewsMax: Reid Citizenship Plan Called an Election Ploy
San Jose Mercury News: Federal maneuverings revive controversial immigration bill for youth
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Senate Showdown on Military Bill: Reid’s DREAM Act Amnesty & DADT Repeal Attachments Shot Down, Vote Was 56-43… Excellent Job Calling Senate, Patriots (video) and Called on the Carpet: Harry Reid’s “DREAM Act” Amnesty & Free College Education for Illegal Aliens in Defense Bill Called Election Ploy and Senior RINO Moment? Gen. Colin Powell No Longer Sure if He Does or Doesn’t Break Laws to Hire Illegal Aliens to Do Work Around His House and Federal Govt’s Illegal Immigration Mess: Dragnet’s Jack Webb Schools Eric Holder on Arizona (video) and Eye-Opener: Legal Immigrants Speak Out Against Illegal Immigrants (video) and More Gun Battles in Mexico: Soldiers Kill 30 Drug Cartel Members Near US Border, Texas Requests Used MC-12 Aircraft for Border Protection and Another Lawsuit Against Arizona’s SB1070 Illegal Immigration Bill Bites the Desert Dust – Tucson Police Officer’s Suit Thrown Out and Gov. Paterson Signs Domestic Workers’ Rights Bill, NY Gives Illegals Worker Rights & Overtime Pay and and Illegal Immigration: Obama Claims Crime Is Down at Mexico Border… WRONG, Mr. President and Deep in the Heart of Texas: Obama Attacks Bush in Bush’s Home State, Dems Avoid POTUS, Gov. Perry Greets President with Letter on TX Border Security Problems (video) and Latino Indignation: Dr. Alvarez Fires Back at Sen. Reid for His Insult to Hispanics, Suggesting That Latinos Are Stupid (video) and Palin Lands It: “Jan Brewer Has the Cajones the President Doesn’t Have to Secure Our Borders,” Plus Contradictions in Judge Bolton’s SB 1070 Ruling (video)
Mcnorman’s Weblog: The Border…Safest Evah!
Gateway Pundit: Obama Refers to Illegal Aliens as “Us” at Backyard Lib BBQ (Video) and Radical Judge Blocks PA Town From Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration and Jimmy Breslin: Tea Partiers Are Like Kennedy’s Killer Sirhan Sirhan, Are Racists Filled With ‘Madness’ and The Drug Culture In Mexico Spawns Its Own Language Called Narco-Speak and New Film ‘Machete’: Cynical Exploitation of America’s Racial Troubles and Gov. Brewer Slams Obama Administration Over Outrageous UNHRC Report On Arizona Immigration Law and Retired Border Security Agents Join ICE and Border Agents In No Confidence Vote of Obama Administration
Diary of a Mad Conservative: Border Sheriff’s website – they need our support
Nice Deb: Janet Napolitano Tells Reporters Security Along Border Is Actually Improving and ICE Draft Memo Directs Local Police To Stop Enforcing Immigration Laws
Hot Air: Crash and burn: Senate filibusters Reid’s DADT/DREAM Act defense package, 56/43
Michelle Malkin: DREAM Act showdown: Dems hold defense bill hostage to social justice; Update: Cloture vote FAILS 56-43, now pass a clean bill; Reid vows: “We’re going to vote on the DREAM Act. It’s only a question of when;” Murkowski skipped vote and Harry Reid’s illegal alien student bailout and Open-borders bridges into America and HSINO: The $600 million Homeland Security In Name Only bill
Conservative Pup: Mexican Drug War On Our Doorstep
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Napolitano: It’ll Be a Couple of Months Before We Make Our August 1st Deadline for Border Troops
A Charging Elephant: Feds moving to dismiss some deportation Cases
On My Watch – The Writings of SamHenry: Obama – HELP! We’re Losing Jobs, Yes but Hell, We’re Losing Arizona to Cartels
PR Newswire: Reid’s Intent to Use Defense Bill to Pass DREAM Act Amnesty Denounced as Cynical and Divisive by FAIR
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[...] T-Shirt Trauma: Pro-AZ SB1070 Shirts Caused Commotion in Maryland, Mall Owner Has Apologized for Let… [...]
I just read – elsewhere on the net – that the wrong court ruled on Arizona Immigration Law SB1070. Here are the facts, as presented there:
In a stunning development that could potentially send the nation into a Constitutional crisis, an astute attorney who is well-versed in Constitutional law states that the ruling against the State of Arizona by Judge Susan Bolton concerning its new immigration law is illegal. The attorney in question submitted her assertion in a special article in the Canada Free Press. Her argument states in part, “Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don’t read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. Same goes for our illustrious Attorney General Eric Holder.”
But this lawyer has read it, and she is going to show you something in Our Constitution which is as plain as the nose on your face.
“Article III, Section 2, second clause says: “In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls , and those in which a State shall be Party , the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction . In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction.”
In other words, the Judge in the Arizona case has absolutely no Constitutional jurisdiction over the matter upon which she ruled. As the Constitution makes abundantly clear, only the U.S. Supreme Court can issue rulings in legal actions against a state. This means that neither Judge Bolton nor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco , to which the case is being appealed, have any legal standing whatsoever to rule on the issue. Thus, U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder filed the federal government’s lawsuit against the state of Arizona in a court that has no authority to hear the case.
In a related development, another explosive discovery was made by those who actually take the Constitution seriously. The Constitution specifically allows an individual state to wage war against a neighboring country in the event of an invasion, should there be a dangerous delay or inaction on the part of the federal government.
From Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, we find these words: “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
No one who is actually familiar with the crisis at the southern border can deny that Arizona is endangered by the relentless assault of lawless Mexican invaders who ignore our laws, inundate our schools and medical facilities with unpaid bills, and even endanger the very lives of citizens with criminal drug cartels that engage in kidnapping, murder, human trafficking, and other mayhem, including aiming missile and grenade launchers directly at U.S. border cities from just across the Mexican border. This is every bit as much of an invasion as the nation of Iran sending in a fleet of warships to the Port of Charleston.
The Constitution that forms the basis of the rule of law in this country says that Arizona has legal right to protect itself in the case of inaction or delay on the part of the federal government, including waging war in its self-defense .
This, when coupled with the clear Constitutional mandate that only the Supreme Court hear cases directly involving a state, should be ample legal basis for attorneys representing Arizona to go after the federal government with a vengeance. Governor Jan Brewer and the stalwart members of the Arizona legislature have ample legal reason to stand firm against the illegal bullying of an arrogant, lawless federal government.
You can verify it yourself – read the constitution: http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm
(I apologize if this has already been mentioned in a previous post here – I haven’t been around the frugal cafe as much as I’d like lately, so I’m a few days behind on my reading).
Fabulous write-up, Brett – I’ve read in several news stories that the ruling was illegal, but this succinctly explains why far better than anything I’ve read.
Thank you so much for taking the time to report this. I owe you a cup of java if you ever come to Arizona.
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[...] on Andrew Breitbart Fearlessly Standing Up to Left-Wing Mob… “He’s a Warrior” (video) and T-Shirt Trauma: Pro-AZ SB1070 Shirts Caused Commotion in Maryland, Mall Owner Has Apologized for Let… and Senate Showdown on Military Bill: Reid’s DREAM Act Amnesty & DADT Repeal Attachments Shot [...]
Whats up ! Love your blog thanks for sharing it with us