Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
To me, because I am a jaded prick, one of life’s appreciable somewhat-rarities is when government overreaches to “correct” government overreach. It’s kind of like a rainbow: not unheard-of, but uncommon enough give one pause to take note of and appreciate it. I mean, government overreaches all the time, but the subtle irony of it doing so because another segment of government has overreached is just special.
Mississippi provided an example of this yesterday when a federal judge blocked the state’s law “protecting” religious liberty from going into effect today. The law sought to “protect” three “beliefs:” That marriage can only happen between a man and a woman; that sex should only take place within a strictly heterosexual marriage; and that gender is determined at birth and is unalterable. The purpose of the law was to allow government employees to cite their interpretation of religion as a reason they’re unable to do their job. It would also allow private businesses to refuse services to gay couples, based on the business owner’s religious beliefs.
In dispensing his over-bearing brand of justice, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves managed to completely miss the irony of his own written opinion on the case.
“In physics, every action has its equal and opposite reaction. In politics, every action has its predictable overreaction.”
See, Reeves thought he was cleverly chiding the state’s predictable and silly response to the Supreme Court decision last summer that invalidated state bans on gay marriage; and in a way, he was. Lost on him, ostensibly, was the fact his own verdict is itself an overreaction.
Why individuals, state governments and the courts struggle with this matter of religious objection to equal rights is, frankly, beyond me. It is, in the end, very simple; or ought to be.
Here’s how it breaks down.
Reeves was correct in denying government employees the right to refuse to do the job taxpayers pay them to do just because they don’t like doing it. If a county clerk doesn’t want to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, that clerk has a very simple way out of doing so: quit. Where he erred, where he overreacted was taking away the right of private business owners to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
Property rights and simple logic dictate that if someone owns a business, they have all the rights in the world to decide who they will serve or not. I cannot walk into a fine steak house wearing my typical cargo shorts and Iron Maiden T-shirt and expect a table. I cannot apply for a server position at Hooters and expect an interview, just like I cannot apply for an editor job at The Huffington Post and expect an interview. And for the same reason.
Private business owners have, and deserve, the absolute right to refuse service to anyone for any dumbass reason they can come up with for doing so. Put another way, every private business has the absolute right to commit financial suicide, just like every individual has the absolute right to commit physical suicide.
Again, the “why” is immaterial; they simply have that right by virtue of being a private business. Why, for example, a chicken sandwich shop needs to have an official position on same-sex marriage is a valid question; but in the end, said sandwich shop has a right to do so, even in defiance of all logic and basic business sense. It’s not like they’re the only sandwich shop in town. The customers they don’t want to serve can take their money across the street to a different shop, where the more-business-savvy owner will be happy to put it in his or her till. The same applies to bakers of wedding cakes, the owners of brake shops, or the proprietors of pizza parlors. Or, it should anyway.
The line of demarcation is so plain and obvious, yet it gets missed routinely by legislators and judges. Let private businesses refuse service to anyone, and prohibit government bodies from doing the same. The former owes nothing to anyone who hasn’t already paid them, whereas the latter has already been paid for by everyone, thereby entitling everyone to its use.
It’s all really, really simple, actually. No wonder government constantly screws it up.
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