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Kevin Sullivan's avatar

One of the big things that seems to be here is people seem to want to take 'constitutional' and 'legal' to mean good. They aren't synonyms. Things you can like and policy positions you support can be illegal and unconstitutional just as the inverse can be true.

More importantly, the path of how you get to those things is hugely important and just because there's an outcome you like doesn't mean you can use the path that was taken to get there.

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Ivan Fyodorovich's avatar

A friend of mine is a Hebrew - English translator, and some years ago a Christian group wanted him to translate their pamphlets into Hebrew in order to convert Israelis to Christianity. He refused the commission, not wanting to create such material, and I can't imagine anyone would accuse him of illegal discrimination. It seems like there are many situations where you can obviously refuse a job because it would compel you to engage in expression you disagree with (such as above), many situations where you obviously can't (any non-expression transaction), and a very few where reasonable minds can disagree (custom wedding cake, custom flower arrangement for event, putting writing on a store-bought cake with frosting etc.). Exactly where we draw the boundary on the last category is pretty low stakes.

Given the current anti-gay backlash, I can understand why people would get upset about this case and feel like it is another attack, but I don't think it should be viewed in that light.

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