4 ms·
We already lack freedom of association. In the United States, a business is not free to discriminate against certain classes of people, or on the basis of certa
by daxorid 8y ago
We already lack freedom of association. In the United States, a business is not free to discriminate against certain classes of people, or on the basis of certain things.
The only question is what is the precise coefficient of friction on that slippery slope.
You can argue that wedding cakes should be baked for gay couples but that websites should not be hosted for nazis for reasons A, B, and C. But claiming that businesses have some sort of broad right to free association is not merely specious, but completely and obviously wrong.
- dragonwriter 8y agoBusinesses do, in fact, have a broad right of free association, limited only by statutory (and possibly State constitutional) limitations that comport with the high federal Constitutional bar for such limitations.
- wpietri 8y agoNo freedom is perfectly available. Freedom of speech, for example, doesn't allow you to commit perjury or fraud, and it doesn't entitle you to harass someone. Freedom of association doesn't let you stalk somebody, or let felons on parole talk to one another. All rights must be balanced against other rights. Businesses do have a very broad right of freedom to serve who they please. The one exception is when historically many businesses have used that power to participate in oppression against specific downtrodden groups. So a business can happily decline to serve US congressmen, freemasons, and people who have thrown up on their floor previously. But they can't decline to serve black people as a group. The specific groups who have been legally recognized for this are called protected classes, and it's pretty settled law in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group