(FORTUNE Magazine) – Your servant has had some moments of deep doubt in preparing this item. For openers, the controversy being covered is one in which he nervously finds himself on the same side of the barricades as the American Civil Liberties Union. Bizarrer still is another aspect of the case: The ACLU is turning up on the side of the landlords and against the welfare mothers. Counterintuitive, eh? Our action begins at Xmastime in Milwaukee. Basic plot premise: For many a Yule, the local authorities have had a policy of not evicting tenants during the Christmas season. It seems the burghermeisters have long suspected it is bad PR to throw poor people into snowbanks just when St. Nicholas is due to show up. The standard reason for evictions is of course nonpayment of rent. As predicted by the rational expectations school of economics, not to mention the landlords of Milwaukee, the eviction moratorium long ago translated into a mighty Yuletide wave of nonpayments by local poor people -- typically female-headed families on welfare. As would have been predicted by the Conservative Caucus had it focused on the case, these renters were counseled by federally funded activists like Community Advocates and Legal Action of Wisconsin, which dependably supplied detailed advice on timing strategies for nonpayers. The bottom line, as elaborated for Keeping Up by David Domres of the Apartment Association of Milwaukee Inc. (the landlords), is that tenants were always basically free to hold off on their November and December rent payments until after the New Year. What could the association do about this fancy swindle? Could it hope to carry the day by complaining about landlords' cash flow problems? We are of course jesting. But the property owners thought, and thought, and finally came up with a winner: a politically correct rationale for enforcing rental payments in the Christmas season. Rationale: The Christmas eviction moratorium violates the First Amendment. It threatens the separation of church and state. It could bring back the Inquisition. As explained in the landlord letter to the local ACLU, the moratorium promotes a religious celebration and, even worse, prefers Christianity over other religions. ''No similar rules prevent the eviction of Muslim tenants during the month of Ramadan or the eviction of Jewish tenants during Passover,'' says the letter. Instantly bowled over by this reasoning, the ACLU landed on the city like a ton of bricks, and last spring the Milwaukee County Circuit Court reluctantly abandoned the moratorium. ''I would like to continue it,'' said Patrick Sheedy, chief judge of Milwaukee County, ''but if they are to bring an action against us, we would have no defense.'' So in 1991, for the first time in years, evictions in Milwaukee were carried out during the Christmas season. Possibly nervous about being on the same side as Keeping Up, the local ACLU was recently telling the press that the city now needed to provide ''alternative housing for poor people.'' Possibly to be delivered by Santa? |