Updated — In a correction we learn Shirvell was not suspended, rather, he’s taken a leave of absence.
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On Wednesday Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defended Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell’s constitutional right to wage an Internet campaign against an openly gay college student, even though he admitted Shirvell was a “bully.”
Yesterday he changed his tune. Shirvell’s suspended:
Cox said he hadn’t earlier read all of Shirvell’s blog, “Chris Armstrong Watch,” that dogs Armstrong, the 21-year-old, openly gay president of U-M’s student government and accuses him of “anti-Christian behavior,” “mocking God,” promoting homosexuality and trying “to recruit your sons and daughters” into the gay lifestyle.
“I’m at fault here,” Cox said. “I’ve been saying for weeks that (Shirvell’s) been acting like a bully, that his behavior is immature, but it’s after-hours and protected by the First Amendment.”
But Cox also took a shot at Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who posted a Twitter item Thursday saying she would have fired Shirvell.
“I don’t know why she’s so freaking irresponsible. … she went to Harvard Law School,” Cox said. “The civil service rules are a huge shield for free speech and she knows that.”
Cox says that civil service rules prevent him from firing Shirvell. The ACLU agrees. Shirvell was read a
trespass warning on Sept. 14 and banned from the University of Michigan campus until an investigation of “harassing or stalking” is completed.
Shirvell’s anti-Armstrong blog has been moved behind a password. My earlier post has background and reaction. Shirvell’s radical anti-gay agenda goes way back. The photo is of Shirvell heckling demonstrators at a May 8 “Laramie Project” rally to protest Westboro Baptist Church.