The governor’s decision to remove the mural—and rename several conference rooms in the state’s Department of Labor building that honor national and local labor leaders including Frances Perkins, the nation’s first woman secretary of labor--ignited a firestorm of criticism and, also, the federal lawsuit which was filed on behalf of three artists, a workplace safety official, an organized labor representative and an attorney, the lawsuit that was dismissed this week.
Governor LePage, according to Woodcock, is entitled to engage in “government speech,” a doctrine that says the government is free to express itself. And so the lawsuit, contending that the governor violated the Constitution and the state’s contract with the artist who did the mural, was dismissed.
“We have a legal decision but nothing resembling justice. What’s been censored, what’s been removed and suppressed, is not just Judy Taylor’s free speech against the governor’s free speech or government speech — what’s been censored is our history.”
Curious, the government can express itself? The artist can’t? The labor movement doesn’t have a voice? Whose speech is protected?
Another example of an act that is found to be legal but is just plain wrong!