Town Council Bans “Wal-Mart” From Being Mentioned at Town Meetings: Have These Fools Ever Heard of the First Amendment?

In a childish move to stifle free and open discussion of whether a Wal-Mart should be built in their town, the Yelm, Washington, town council banned the terms “Wal-Mart” and “big-box store” and “moratorium” from their council meetings.

The usual controversy erupted in the small town as it usually does when a market superpower like Wal-Mart comes in and threatens the locally owned businesses.

Instead of rejecting the application from Wal-Mart, as the town council could have done, they banned people’s rights to bring up Wal-Mart instead. This amounts to the same thing as burying their heads in the sand and hoping that the problem will go away.

Each member of this council should be provided with a copy of the Constitution of the United States and encouraged to read the First Amendment carefully.

Someone should go to a council meeting, get arrested for violating the ban, go before the judge and ask him/her to overturn the ban as it is unconstitutional. Citizens must have the right to have access to “free and accountable” government as provided for in the Constitution. Since the ACLU has no plans to get involved, this issue should be forced. This must not be allowed to stand.

If the council doesn’t want Wal-Mart, they should reject the application instead of assaulting the First Amendment. Here's the story.