Stepping In It

Indiana is poised to allow people to stop selling cake to people who contrive a religious objection for doing so.

As I understand it this was because the state was forcing them to sell cake to people whom they'd rather not do business with because of their religious principles.

What I am sketchy about is where the power to force someone to do business with anyone for any or no reason comes from.

Before someone says, "the courts," I am dubious that the judicial branch actually has the authority to grant powers that aren't already available to the legislative.  If congress can't enact, then judge can't either.

This issue pisses me off because where was the demand that Muslim cab drivers haul drunks around or unaccompanied women home from liquor stores?  Isn't that the same thing as refusing to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple?  Yet it's OK for Muslim cab drivers in Minnesota to cite religion as a reason to refuse service but not OK for Christian bakers in Indiana?

Then there's freedom of association.  I've always had trouble with the idea that a business couldn't choose its clientele on any or no basis.

Forcing businesses to cater to people they don't want to do business with seems to stem from the civil rights movement and I think we did the wrong thing for the right reasons.  What we really accomplish is to hide the hate.  To make it hidden makes it insidious.

The fallout from that is we can no longer openly hate anyone in several classes, for any reason.

I, for one, want the hate and bigotry out in the open.  So I can avoid doing business with bigots!  Forcing them to hide the hate means I can't know who's a bigot and I'll end up doing business with them myself.  I don't want bigots to prosper!

Also, importantly, I don't want anyone who hates me in particular to be handling anything I am going to eat.