Do photographers have a First Amendment right to choose what they photogr...

[DavidEBernstein at aol.com]

With regard to unmarried heterosexuals as in Swanner, not only is there no  
compelling government interest in preventing commercial discrimination,  the 
government actually arguably has an interest  in encouraging such discrimination 
in order to promote the  social benefits of marriage, as it does in many 
ways.   Meanwhile, "Elane" didn't refuse commerce with gays, she refused to  
photograph a gay commitment ceremony.  A blanket refusal to accept gay  clients 
regardless of subject matter would raise somewhat distinct issues.
 
In a message dated 4/10/2008 1:06:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
crossf at mail.utexas.edu writes:


I  would think no individual case would be compelling, but the question is  
whether government has a compelling interest in prohibiting commercial  
discrimination against gays (or blacks, jews, etc.) 

At 11:15 AM  4/10/2008, DavidEBernstein at aol.com wrote:

Yes, they should, normatively.  Is this a First Amendment right?  Not under 
current freedom of expression doctrine, nor under Smith for  religious freedom, 
but it should be protected under state RFRAs, as the  state has no compelling 
interest in requiring any given caterer, florist, or  anyone else to work at 
any particular wedding (though there are precedents  out there holding that 
things that I wouldn't even say are minimally  important government interests 
are constitutionally compelling for state  free exercise purposes, as in the 
Swanner case in Alaska in which the state  supreme court held that forcing a 
religious landlord to rent to an unmarried  heterosexual couple was a "compelling 
state  interest.")



 



**************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides.    
  (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/conlawprof/attachments/20080410/f4416664/attachment.htm