In the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a bakery that had refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. It did so on grounds that are specific to this particular case and will have little to no applicability to future cases. The opinion is full of reaffirmations of our country’s longstanding rule that states can bar businesses that are open to the public from turning customers away because of who they are. (snip)

The decision also recognizes that adopting a rule — as advocated by the bakery — that would allow businesses to turn gay people away carries a significant risk of harm. It outlines its own fear that “a long list of persons who provide goods and services for marriages and weddings might refuse to do so for gay persons.” This would result, the decision continues, “in a community-wide stigma in­consistent with the history and dynamics of civil rights laws that ensure equal access to goods, services, and public accommodations.”

Significantly, the court cited an earlier case, Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., where it rejected precisely the kind of claims that the bakery made here. Piggie Park was a chain of barbeque restaurants in Columbia, South Carolina, that claimed its religion required it to refuse to serve Black customers alongside white ones and that applying the 1964 Civil Rights Act would violate its religious freedom. The courts rejected that argument, with the Supreme Court calling it “frivolous.”

When the organizers of a Republican National Convention fundraising event scheduled for Nashville this month called FLWR Shop in Belle Meade for floral design services for the event — owners Alex Vaughan and Quinn Kiesow said no.

The FLWR Shop owners posted on their social media accounts they "immediately declined" the "opportunity" and went on to say they would like to challenge others in the Nashville event industry to say no to taking money or jobs from Republican party until they begin to make the changes to gun laws that most Americans are calling for. (snip)

"Our community has just lost seven people, including three young children, to yet another school shooting. At this moment, I cannot ignore the work that the RNC has done to create this tragedy and so many others just like it."