Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States got the correct ruling for a host of wrong reasons in a case that highlights the idiocy and wholly unnecessary nature of government. The high court ruled 7-2 in favor of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple way back in 2012.
To recap, instead of being well-adjusted, normal, decent adults and simply spending their money at one of the many different bakeries available, David Mullins and Charlie Craig did the unthinkable; they went to the armed gang that is government and demanded it do something to Phillips when the baker refused to make a cake for the gay couple’s upcoming wedding.
And, do something, the gang did. The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission which naturally sided with them against the private business owner, based on the rationale that: “that the state anti-discrimination law was neutral and generally applicable and did not compel Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop to ‘support or endorse any particular religious view.’ It simply prohibited Phillips from discriminating against potential customers on account of their sexual orientation,” according to CNN.
So, the “Civil Rights” Commission ruled that Phillips didn’t have to support or endorse the gay couple on their nuptials, he just had to bake them a lovely cake for the occasion; or, else. Clearly, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission needs to be disbanded as it has no idea what rights actually are.
Given the complete insanity of that ruling, Phillips appealed and appealed and finally, after four years of nonsense, the SCOTUS managed to bungle a ruling that never had anything really to do with religion or the religious liberties of Jack Phillips or anyone else as they relate to any state law.
This was always and only a case about private property rights. Every private business owner has the absolute right to refuse to do business with anyone for any reason they choose by virtue of the fact they own the business. That’s it and that’s all. That should have been the only ruling available from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. That it took meandering through the courts all the way to SCOTUS, and then for the justices to get it wrong, with Sotamayor and RBG dissenting (the later may well have just passed out), is evidence of how completely screwed up this nation is.
It might not be a great business move for a baker to eliminate a bunch of potential customers from consideration for religious reasons, or for failing to follow a proper protocol for ordering soup, but that’s the right private business owners get to enjoy by virtue of being private business owners. It is that right that must be protected; in fact, the protection of property rights is why humans made the mistake of creating states and governments to begin with. Here, SCOTUS has shown us all exactly the extent to which the purpose of government has been stood on its head in recent centuries.
The entire purpose, the whole rationalization for keeping the armed gang we call “government” around in the first place was to protect private property rights from marauders. Jack Phillips had to slog through four years of bullshit; fighting against layers of government to win back his inherent right to choose with whom he will do business or not. First, Colorado’s legislature enacted a law that fails the central purpose of the government by hassling, not protecting, property owners. Phillips then had to battle a bunch of bureaucrats’ interpretation of that law in the form of the “Civil Rights” Commission, then appeal all the way through the judicial system to the top before getting a remedy that didn’t even contain a positive affirmation of his basic human rights as a private business owner. The law perverted, indeed.
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