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2019
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2019-12-18
Abstract
The following paper compares two major cases in the US legal system that deal with discrimination in public accommodations. Public accommodations are a particular class of business that, broadly speaking, offer services to anyone who walks in the door. Examples include, but are not limited to, restaurants, hotels, and retails stores. Due to their public nature, legislative attempts have been made to mitigate discrimination in this class of business, on the basis that all people should have equal enjoyment to the services offered. There have been instances where an owner(s) of public accommodation(s) do not provide equal enjoyment of services to customers. In the two instances this paper addresses, the owners do not provide services to the patrons, due to the fact that the patrons' sexual-orientation conflicts with the owners' deeply-held religious views. The owners attribute their decision(s) to free exercise of religion. In the first case, Masterpiece, the Court ruled in favor of the business owner. I attribute the Court's decision in favor of the owner to two features. First, the service requested involved the creation of an expression from the creator, and thus deserved protection under the First Amendment. Secondly, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was hostile towards the owner's religious views and did not approach them in the neutral fashion they deserved. In the second case, Cervelli, the Court ruled in favor of the patrons, striking down the owners' claims to freely exercise religion. This decision can be attributed to the fact that, despite the owners' contentions, the fact that the public accommodation business was operated out of their home means they are no longer entitled to the same expectation of legal protection for their actions. In other words, the fact that their home was used as a place of business for the public means they could no longer expect the same sort of freedom as they could in a purely private home. On first impressions, many might say that these cases were decided "inconsistently" with each other. The cases can be said to be inconsistent with each other in the sense that their holdings are not identical, I shall call this the "weak sense". However, my research finds that these cases were decided "consistently" in a stronger sense, to the extent that their holdings are consistent when considered within the body of settled law.
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Philosophy