GOP Lawmaker Says Businesses Should Be Allowed To Deny Services To Black People

The Huffington Post | by Shadee Ashtari

Posted: 03/17/2014 6:21 pm EDT Updated: 03/18/2014 11:59 am EDT

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Video Phil Jensen Phil Jensen Sb 128 Phil Jensen Extreme Bills Phil Jensen Businesses African Americans Phil Jensen Lgbt South Dakota Phil Jensen Phil Jensen Abortion Phil Jensen Businesses Gays Politics News

State Sen. Phil Jensen (R-S.D.) doesn't believe governments should interfere in the private sector’s ability to engage in race-based discrimination, according to an interview published in the Rapid City Journal on Sunday.

"If someone was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and they were running a little bakery for instance, the majority of us would find it detestable that they refuse to serve blacks, and guess what? In a matter of weeks or so that business would shut down because no one is going to patronize them,” Jensen told the Journal, advocating for the free market's role in promoting civil rights.

His comments come after a recently failed attempt to advance controversial anti-LGBT legislation, which he introduced in January. Under the auspices of freedom of speech, the bill, SB 128, sought to permit South Dakota businesses and residents to refuse services to customers based on their sexual orientation.

Three weeks later, the state Senate Judiciary committee voted 5-2 to kill Jensen’s proposal, which state Sen. Mark Kirkeby (R) called a “mean, nasty, hateful, vindictive bill.”

Jensen defended his efforts during his interview with the Journal, positioning the failed proposal as “a bill that protects the constitutional right to free association, the right to free speech and private property rights.”

President of the Black Hills Center for Equality David Patton, a vocal opponent of SB 128, rejected Jensen's reasoning, citing the necessity of civil rights legislation to protect minority groups.

"The free market didn't do away with slavery," Patton told the Journal.

In 2011, Jensen, a staunch pro-life advocate, sponsored a bill to amend the state's definition of justifiable homicide in a way that potentially would have legalized the killing of doctors who perform abortions. Although the Rapid City lawmaker denied such an interpretation, state lawmakers shelved the proposal after bipartisan concern over the legislation’s phrasing.

Jensen also discussed another recently failed measure during his interview with the Journal -- a bill proposed by state Sen. Mark Kirkeby (R) in January that sought to establish mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients.

Although Jensen told the Journal he supported the legislation, he was unsure whether recipients of other forms of government assistance, like farmers who receive subsidies, should be subjected to similar testing.

"You got me there," Jensen said, laughing.

(h/t Rapid City Journal)

Permalink Reply by exedir on March 20, 2014 at 8:52am

First, the district, the 9th, is a safe one for a Democrat, so, the issue of the candidate is more one of style than substance as a political necessity. Therefore "fringe" candidates can rise on the whim of any of those that vote which in many primaries are only the most dedicated, bored, angry or otherwise motivated to express a point, or demonstrate that the process is at the core, pointless.

We can expect more of this phenomenon as we approach the height of the spring primaries as candidates are sorted out for both the spring and in some cases the fall elections.

And yes, it is the press that has to do the reporting as that is the job of the fourth estate in a democracy, problem is when the media is the story and not the candidates, who they are and what they are saying....or otherwise forced off the media platform as in the 24/7 coverage of MH370 and the dismemberment of the Crimea, all worthwhile stories, all probably over covered with talking heads, pundits and fill time between commercials.

One wonders how the Obama girls excellent adventure in China will be covered as there is going continue to be an overlay of other world events that impact China rather then cloture wars of the First Ladies and daughters.

Permalink Reply by LoveLife&Laughter on March 20, 2014 at 8:32pm

Does anyone believe the Obama girls excellent adventure in China can be as good as the Republicans excellent adventure in Iraq looking for the lost Ark mythical WMD? Hilarious, except for 5,000 American dead and 50,000 American wounded, maimed, and crippled.

Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on March 20, 2014 at 8:38pm

not to mention that three or four trillion here and there and it starts to add up to real money

Permalink Reply by P.A. on March 21, 2014 at 1:07pm

Wonder how she explains the fact that red states have many more tornadoes that blue states?

Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on March 21, 2014 at 1:28pm

you think actual facts make any difference to certain segments of our population? i read local message boards where idiots think we should send the troops into the crimea...as tho we could land troops 6,000 miles away in a former russian state that shares a border WITH russia and where ships would have to sail thru the bosporus straits, planes would have to land somewhere and the somewhere is controlled by russia...

logic is the enemy of that segment (PS they also believe ted cruz when he says it wasn't HIS fault the government shut down)

Permalink Reply by P.A. on March 22, 2014 at 6:58am

You are right of course but one can wonder.

just more stuff....

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