So the traditional answer for these two groups (at least the ones in America) has always been "businesses have the right to fore any employee for any reason".
Now I get the sense that with the massive corporate abuse of power on free speech as well as this subject, opinions may be shifting.
But I am very interested in knowing what people think about this and why.
Companies below a certain size.
The likes of Amazon shouldn't be able to, but some 90 year old man's tiny family business probably should.
That’s an interesting idea. Idk where the line would be but I do think a business owner has the right to hire and fire for literally whatever reason. That being said, a lot of the megacorps are quasi-governmental (or even supranational). Treating them the same as a mom and pop bookstore is dangerous and gives them free reign to corral people based on ideology AND affect the policies of whatever target country to fly cover for their social experimentation.
Publicly traded.
It's a well established line that if you're a private company you can basically do whatever the fuck you want as long as you're not brazenly violating the CRA.
Not substantially more than there already is.
The reasons companies go publicly traded is very simple: selling shares "costs" nothing compared to borrowing. That will never change.
Nor should it change. You only need to look at Japan's lost decades to see what happens when companies decide to lean on debt. In the US once a company resorts to debt it's usually a sign for the vultures to circle.