If the Supreme Court comes down on the side of the baker and the florist then doesn’t that make all these anti-discrimination laws in all these states invalid since they can violate someone else’s First Amendment rights?
This case from South Carolina in 2015 had the South Carolina Circuit Court judge rule that “With the freedom to associate goes its corollary, the freedom to disassociate.”
This particular case involved The Diocese of South Carolina withdrawing from The Episcopal Church and taking all of its $500 million in assets with it. The Episcopal Church sued to block the disassociation.
The Court found that “the Constitution and Canons of TEC have no provisions which state that a member diocese cannot voluntarily withdraw its membership.” The ruling found that had there been such a provision, it would have violated the Diocese’s “constitutionally-protected right” to freedom of association. “With the freedom to associate goes its corollary, the freedom to disassociate,” Judge Goodstein said.
The challenge now is how to incorporate this South Carolina Circuit Court ruling with other state court rulings going the other way, so that the Supreme Court of the United States affirms that there is a "corollary freedom to disassociate" such that small businesses can choose to not associate in business contracts they find unacceptable.
Coerced or forced association is slavery.
-PJ