A GUY WAS ARRESTED AT ALBANY’S CROSSGATES MALL because he was wearing an antiwar t-shirt and refused to take it off or to leave when asked.

A reader wonders if he’s got a First Amendment lawsuit. The answer is no, because the mall is a private entity and doesn’t have to observe the First Amendment (he may, however, have an action under New York law or New York’s state constitution).

Unlike the government, though, the Crossgates Mall is regulated by the market. The “crossgatesmall.com” website is one of those bogus entities run by an outfit that hits you with popups and tries to hijack your homepage. But this page lists businesses at the Crossgates Mall, with their phone numbers and websites, in case you want to contact them and express your disappointment with the mall in which they operate.

I think anti-war t-shirts are dumb and wrong, of course, but that doesn’t mean that people should be thrown out of malls for wearing them. And as these shirts were entirely unobjectionable in terms of their presentation, the only possible reason for the mall to act this way was because it didn’t like the message. As a private business, the mall is free to take that attitude, of course.

But other people are free to take their business elsewhere.

UPDATE: I ‘ve gotten a lot of email about this. If you’re interested in free speech and shopping malls — and you should be — you’ll be interested in this article by a former student of mine on the subject. It started out as a paper for my Advanced Constitutional Law seminar.

And, even more bizarre, apparently the t-shirts were bought at the mall. Jeez.

And Michele emails:

The man in question, Stephen Downs, is the director of the Albany office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. His office has been made all but obsolete by the recent ruling regarding the free speech limits of judges running for election.

While I totally disagree with those security guards, I just thought this was an interesting ironic twist in the story.

A censor censored. Heh. Bill Hobbs is offering comments from a journalist’s perspective.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Eugene Volokh has comments.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A media reader sends a copy of the mall’s press release in reply:

STATEMENT BY TIM KELLEY, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS,

PYRAMID MALL MANAGEMENT REGARDING CROSSGATES MALL

On the evening of March 3, Crossgates Mall security received a complaint regarding two individuals disrupting customers. The individuals were approached by security because of their actions and interference with other shoppers. Their behavior, coupled with their clothing, to express to others their personal views on world affairs were disruptive of customers.

Crossgates’ management is committed to maintaining the mall as a family-friendly facility that provides a secure and enjoyable experience for all its visitors while allowing merchants a prosperous place to do business. While Crossgates Mall is perceived by some to be a public place, it is privately owned. The courts have affirmed that private properties, including shopping malls, have the right to restrict actions and behaviors deemed inconsistent with its intended purpose — in this case a shopping environment.

The existing rules of conduct at Crossgates Mall strictly prohibit loitering, disorderly or disruptive conduct, harassment, offensive language, fighting or any illegal activity. The Mall will not tolerate violations of these regulations. In this instance, mall management given the information provided to them, determined the customers in question were violating mall policy.

Information has surfaced regarding future demonstrations at Crossgates Mall. Mall management cannot and will not allow this type of activity to occur and will be vigilant in enforcing the rules of conduct which provide a safe and comfortable environment for visitors, merchants and employees.

In light of recent events, it is important to note that Crossgates Mall has long been a safe, friendly atmosphere for shopping, dining and entertainment.

Well, there you are. Somewhat short on details, though.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has the police report. It seems there was more to this story than just t-shirts.

TOMPAINE.COM is trying to set up a three-way cage match between Eric Alterman, Ann Coulter, and Bernard Goldberg.

THE AMERICAN STREET: Literally, in this case, since that’s where I saw this bumper sticker. “Terrorists Beware: Rugby Player On Board.” I think Mark Bingham would be proud.

And rightly so.

It’s almost enough to make me wish I played rugby, instead of just being part of the “rugby of opinion peddling.” But only almost. When I was in college, I dated a member of the women’s rugby team, and I know that I’m not that tough.

HERE’S MORE EVIDENCE that John Ashcroft’s misplaced priorities are hurting the credibility of antiterrorism efforts. And of Ashcroft.

MERDE IN FRANCE emails this picture — taken by cellphone — of a rather limp anti-war protest in Paris today, and notes:

Here are some photos taken with a Nokia 7650

from the Bastille Opera just 1 hour ago.

As you can see the organisers are having trouble drumming up a crowd even though France is supposed to be leading the opposition to military action against Iraq. The French work only 35 hour [weeks], have long lunch breaks, and it is a mild pre-spring day here in Paris, the Bastille is one of the major ‘meeting places’ in Paris, and this is the best they can do.

Looks like Chirac is taking French support for granted.

Interesting. I love getting pix by cellphone. Here’s the full-size image, by the way.

Visit Merde in France later on, where I presume he’ll post some comments once he makes it to a computer that’ll let him access his blog.

UPDATE: A followup:

Thanks much. I was just out again at the same spot (exactly 1 hour later) and everyone and everything had left.

Incredible. No sign of life.

Lame.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More bad news for the French — Daniel Drezner reports that the E.U. is becoming an English-speaking zone.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Go here for more pics from Paris — including some more from the “big” march later that turned out not to be especially big either.

HERE’S THE WEBPAGE for the Oxford Democracy Forum, yet another of the many student pro-war pro-liberation groups springing up everywhere. Check it out.

I’m also told that Brandeis’s group will be featured in a Fox News story tonight.

UPDATE: And check out the St. Andrews Liberty Club at St. Andrews University, Scotland.

VIRGINIA POSTREL noted the other day that the percentage of spam in her inbox was way, way, up. I just noticed that of the last 25 messages I got at my personal, non-instapundit account, 20 were spam.

When the war is over, if there are any JDAMs left, I can suggest a few targets. . .

CHECK OUT SUSANNAH BRESLIN’S audioblog.

IS THE CASE FOR USING TORTURE against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed really “quite strong”?

I don’t think so. And others are, at least, ambivalent.

UPDATE: Howard Veit has some thoughts on how to get him to talk.

IF YOU’RE AN AMERICAN IN BULGARIA, the U.S. Embassy could use some help.

MARK STEYN on the Chretien / Musharraf connection:

The Liberal Party of Canada, on the other hand, seems to reckon you can insult the Yanks with impunity while being utterly dependent on them. Some of us — on the “right,” as Lawrence Martin sees it — figure it would be honourable for Mr. Chrétien to put his mouth where Canada’s money is. But he can’t do that. He’s in the position of General Musharraf: Political reality necessitates being pro-American, or at least not overtly anti-American, but the inclinations of Ms. Parrish and many other of his supporters are to jump up and down shouting “Death to the Great Satan!” This is par for the course in a basket case like Pakistan, but it’s not really healthy for what’s supposed to be a stable, settled Western democracy. . . .

Read the whole thing, as some people say.

EDWARD BOYD has the reason that Hillary Clinton was so supportive of war today.

ONE WAY TO GET PUBLISHED: Threaten a lawsuit! David Appell and Rishawn Biddle (who calls Gary Taubes’ piece a “bruised ego-soother “) have the scoop, with links.

BBC LISTENERS: Here’s the list of weblogs that I mentioned.

I’LL BE ON THE BBC in about 15 minutes, at around 9:20 Eastern time.

ANOTHER ANTI-WAR SPEAKER WHO HATES AMERICA?

Between songs, the pugnacious Hynde, in a classic black T-shirt and jeans, bantered and battled with the crowd. She dedicated “You Know Who Your Friends Are” to “all you junkies and f–,” gave a shout-out to the late Joe Strummer, opined that she hopes the United States loses if it goes to war with Iraq (“Bring it on! Give us what we deserve!”), and introduced the song “Fools Must Die” with the self-deprecating quip, “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Too bad. I used to respect her.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Healey points out that Joe Strummer supported war in Afghanistan, saying:

I think you have to grow up and realise that we’re facing religious fanatics who would kill everyone in the world who doesn’t do what they say.

The more time you give them the more bombs they’ll get. Bin Laden is going to try and kill more people.

“The more time you give them the more bombs they’ll get.” Hmm. Some of us think that applies to Saddam, too.

WALT ERICKSON EMAILS:

Has anyone considered the possibility of Saddam killing one of his many doubles and having a selected general declare a successful coup, and to prove it, producing a body? Would the invasion be put on hold while we argue about it being the real Saddam? Or am I being paranoid?

I think we’ve got DNA. Great spy novel plot, though.

THE WAR ON TERROR MUST BE GOING WELL: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is willing to cooperate with authorities in order to escape our wrath, or public opprobrium, or some combination of the two.

GERHARD SCHROEDER’S SUPPORTERS ARE GETTING NASTY. That’s probably because they’re also getting desperate.

UPDATE: Amiland writes that I’ve missed the context. He says that Schroeder actually got treated worse than this.

A BLOGGER GOES TO WAR: Read about it here.

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE: Simon Schama writes in The New Yorker that Europeans have never liked America much. Excerpt:

In the early nineteenth century, with Enlightenment optimism soured by years of war and revolution, critics were skeptical of America’s naïve faith that it had reinvented politics. Later in the century, American economic power was the enemy, Yankee industrialism the behemoth against which the champions of social justice needed to take up arms. A third generation, itself imperialist, grumbled about the unfairness of a nation’s rising to both continental and maritime ascendancy. And in the twentieth century, though the United States came to the rescue of Britain and France in two world wars, many Europeans were suspicious of its motives. . . .

Other characteristics of American life alienated the Romantics: the distaste for tragedy (a moral corrective to illusions of invincibility); the strong preference for practicality; the severance from history; and, above all, what the Germans called bodenlosigkeit, a willed rootlessness, embodied in the flimsy frame construction of American houses. Europeans watched, pop-eyed, while whole houses were moved down the street. This confirmed their view that Americans had no real loyalty to the local, and explained why they preferred utilitarian “yards” to flower gardens. No delphiniums, no civility.

Same old, same old. I guess that means you can’t really blame Bush, or the response to 9/11, for creating some new variety of alienation. (Via Gary Farber).

IS WI-FI LIKE A TOILET? These and other questions are addressed over at GlennReynolds.com today.

COOL-2B-REAL: In the faux-rilla marketing vein, Radley Balko sends this link to a site run by the beef producers.

FROM TIME TO TIME, I (like most academics) get asked to review the scholarship of someone who is up for tenure or promotion at another University. You read the articles or books, write a letter saying whether you think they’re good enough or not, and send it off. Sometimes they pay you a token honorarium (say, $100), sometimes (most times) they don’t.

Today I got a letter thanking me for one of those reviews, and saying that my letter was very helpful. That’s nice, since usually once you send the comments off you never hear any more. But the letter didn’t say how it turned out. Why not?

You get something similar with letters of recommendation for students — people hardly ever respond once you send them. However, a few years ago I wrote a letter recommending a student who had been on the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team that I coached. He got the job, but what was really nice was that about a year later I got a letter from the law firm that had hired him, saying that he had turned out so well that I should please let them know if I had any other students as good as him.

That was a terrific thing to do, and I think that more places should do something like that. Of course, I say this as someone who’s slowly losing the battle to keep up with his email. . . .

FACT-CHECKING THE COW: Want to know who’s behind the faux-rilla media campaign? It’s all here, including a list of other affiliated sites that are Getting Behind The Cow.

We also learn: “The Raging Cow’s primary utterance is a primal moo!”

I think that Tony Pierce is behind this campaign, somehow.