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Mayes promises to enforce Arizona’s public accommodation law to protect the LGBTQ community in spite of the court’s ruling in a Colorado case.
Opinion by EJ Montini for Arizona Republic
Colorado has a law on the books that says, in simple terms, a business open to the public can’t discriminate against gay people.
The radical right-wing majority of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling last week saying that, yes, it can.
The court took the side of a web designer in Colorado who said it was her First Amendment right to refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex couples.
Arizona has a law much like Colorado’s.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced in no uncertain terms that her office is determined to enforce it, the US Supreme Court and freedom of religious conscience be damned.
Mayes calls ruling ‘woefully misguided’
After the court announced its decision in the Colorado case, Mayes issued a statement that read in part, “Today, a woefully misguided majority of the United States Supreme Court has decided that businesses open to the public may, in certain circumstances, discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans.
“While my office is still reviewing the decision to determine its effects, I agree with Justice Sotomayor — the idea that the Constitution gives businesses the right to discriminate is ‘profoundly wrong.’ ”
Mayes is referring to a dissenting opinion by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote in part, “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”
[Protected class means that they are “more equal than others” — to quote George Orwell’s Animal Farm. –TPR]
She added, “By issuing this new license to discriminate … the immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status.”
Not in Arizona, according to Mayes.
She will ‘continue to enforce’ Arizona’s law
She said in her statement, “Despite today’s ruling, Arizona law prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation, including discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“If any Arizonan believes that they have been the victim of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, or ancestry in a place of public accommodation, they should file a complaint with my office. I will continue to enforce Arizona’s public accommodation law to its fullest extent.”
The extremist majority of the Supreme Court appears willing to nudge the country into a modern-day Jim Crow era.
For now, however, members of the LGBTQ community in Arizona do not have to sit in the back of the bus.
[It would seem that AG Mayes (and the OpEd writer) both feel that the “protected classes” should have preferential treatment over the other “non-protected” people in their state. — TPR]
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