Civil Rights,
Constitutional Law,
U.S. Supreme Court
Nov. 14, 2017
There’s much more at stake than cake
The issue in Masterpiece Cakeshop is whether our society will continue to enforce anti-discrimination law over a claimed right to engage in discrimination. This should be an easy case for the Supreme Court. Businesses should not be accorded a constitutional right to discriminate based on sexual orientation or race or sex or religion.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
OCTOBER 2017 TERM
On Dec. 5, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case that has the potential to dramatically change antidiscrimination law in the United States. The issue is whether a business has a right to discriminate, in violation of clear law, based on its owner's religious beliefs or as a form of expression. The court should emphat...
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