Curious what people would think if Ryan did away with the chaplain position because he’s sick and tired of Catholics.
Most of the right things in history have been done for the wrong reasons. If you’re waiting for nobility, you’re in for a long wait, especially with this crowd.
It’s my view that merely having a bad reason for an otherwise allowed official act isn’t enough to render it void. If we were waiting for nobility, nothing would ever be done in this country.
Sometimes intent figures into legality, in which case it could be enough to at least legally void an action. But bad/stupid reasons don’t 100% overlap with illegal reasons. Hating Catholics would be an illegal reason, so in your example, the action would not be legal. Motivated by hate of the individual would be legal, or even hate of his haircut, but motivated by hate of the protected class is not. Hard to prove that in court, though, unless he was dumb enough to talk openly about it.
Intent does figure into legality but thusfar has remained subsidiary to the act itself. There are those who would like to see intent used to invalidate actions that are otherwise legal.
This is an issue raised in the case of the baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. Justice Kennedy - who is on the side of thinking intent extremely important - suggested there may be “a significant aspect of hostility to a religion in this case” based in part on a statement by a state official.
The idea that courts can decide whether a law is legal or not based essentially on perceived motivations is dangerous and impractical.
EDIT: Also, sometimes depending on the case, actions can be voided not on illegality, but the lack of any reasonable foundation whatsoever, or failure to follow defined process. i.e. if the Secretary of the Interior decided to rename Yellowstone National Park “Zinkeland” one afternoon, he may technically have naming authority, but the act may be void because the defined process for making these changes was not followed. These processes usually exist precisely to avoid people getting wild hairs to do things without much forethought.
True, but I think very different!