This article is a response to: Wedding Cakes Have Nothing to Do With Free Speech, by. Jacob G. Hornberger
Society is based on (a) social contract. This “agreement” is largely theoretical as we are not isolated, free individuals ever. We give and take to create the associations that drive our civilization. This article attempts to argue personal freedoms in favor of the cake shop owner, but misses the larger societal framework. If we agree to a law of set personal freedoms we are all guaranteed and one chooses to operate a public business, then it is their own contractual obligation to serve the public based on each individual’s contracted rights. They are giving up their personal freedom to… loathe I guess… other people in order to serve them in the public domain. It is their right to still hate other people or think however they might think, that doesn’t change.
Wedding cakes do not have anything to do with private property because his public business is not private property. Your home is private property. This is essentially an argument for legalized segregation; an example of libertarian ideals run amuck. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Also, to add an illustration of the give and take of social contract, while store owners are not allowed to segregate, society also accepts/recognizes that they do have some rights of refusal; “no shirt, no shoes, no service”. If you are being intolerable inside their business, they throw you out and society at large accepts that “take” in their direction. This is symbiotic mutualism. Law shouldn’t even be the issue’s focus, it is about fundamental sociology and biology.
Of Worlds and Dreams 