Does Mozilla dumping its CEO over Prop 8 = McCarthyism?

Here are some questions for Reason.com readers:

1. Do you think a business’s personnel decisions or corporate actions should ever be a factor in deciding whether to patronize a firm? Don’t we rally around banks such as BB&T when its leadership says it won’t underwrite deals based on eminent domain abuse? Or Overstock.com when it fights against Internet sales tax plans?

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2. Is the problem with Mozilla that it caved so quickly to OK Cupid’s campaign? Many stories about Eich suggest that his Prop. 8 donation/stance was well-known within the organization and the subject of controversy. Having made the decision to promote Eich – a giant in tech innovation – is the real crime here that Mozilla didn’t push back against a backlash?

3. How important is it that we’re talking about the private sector rather than the public or political sector? We generally talk about how different rules can and should apply to private-sector actors than public-sector ones (quick example: Private universities are not bound by the same First Amendment legal principles as public ones are). Many critics of Eich’s resignation talk about how Obama himself was against gay marriage back in 2008 and that many sitting Democratic senators still are. Is that in any way relevant?

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