“While not at ALL advocating ANYTHING resembling gay marriage, civil unions, etc etc etc you’ve gotta be very careful about permitting people to not serve, etc others just because they don’t like them. History is loaded with examples of that coming back to bite those people in the a**.”
Sure, there’s a price to pay for freedom sometimes. If I can refuse service to someone, they can refuse service to me. Obviously, that can cause problems, we only need to go back a few decades to see that.
However, what is the alternative? Since we surrendered our right to do business with whomever we choose, we have been subjected to an ever-expanding list of groups we must do business with. So, we see the coercive force of the government is using this new found power to grant special privileges to certain groups over others. Arming politicians seeking votes with that magic wand of favoritism is a dangerous thing. They won’t ever restrain themselves from using it if they find it is to their own advantage.
Even setting that quibble aside, there’s a fundamental rights issue that needs to be addressed. First, we should establish: do we have a right to refuse service, and conversely, do we have a right to expect to receive service? For the sake of argument, let’s say that we have both of those rights. Now, how would we determine which right takes precedence, when they are in conflict? For that answer, you have to turn to the foundations of liberalism (real classical liberalism, not progressivism), since those questions were answered centuries ago by guys like Locke and Hobbes.
It turns out that not all rights are equal. If a right derives from natural law, it automatically takes precedence over a right that is conferred by some sovereign or legal authority. I’d argue that the right to refuse service is a natural right, while the right to receive service cannot be anything other than a conferred right. The reason is that, in order to have a right to receive service, I must be able to force another to perform an action, possibly against their will. This violates the principle of liberty, which is the highest principle of all in natural law. On the other hand, the right to refuse services forces noone to do anything against their will, it is simply an assertion of liberty itself. So, when these two rights come into conflict, the natural one, the right to refuse service, must take precedence.
If I'm free to associate with whomever I choose, then I'm also free to reject association with whomever I choose to reject!!!
That's about as "natural" a right there is as "birds of a feather, flock together" and in nature they do it without restraint!!!
“If I can refuse service to someone, they can refuse service to me. Obviously, that can cause problems...”
What problems? If someone didn’t want to serve me, I’d walk away. I’d sacrifice being served in that situation for having the Constitution observed and respected. We’re all (supposed to be) free to associate with whomever we wish. Sad that a FReeper doesn’t understand that concept.