Quote:I suppose I agree with you to an extent here. Where one would say their beliefs are being infringed by not being able to discriminate against w/e they want, others would say they want their intolerance tolerated. It is a sticky situation one that is nearly impossible to discuss here. 

 

The issue is the factors we choose to prohibit as the basis for discrimination. You can certainly discriminate by a "No shirt, no service" sign, but you can't use a "Whites Only" one. The difficulty is in choosing those factors, because when we're honest we admit that every factor selected whittles away at private property rights. We're balancing one against the other and we have to be certain that we don't unbalance the scale in either direction. Previously we were too far to property rights evidenced by the fact that some people were considered property. Now we're moving too far the other way with laws like the ADA that place numerous requirements on "public access" or that require business owners to violate personal religious beliefs to serve customers that they don't want. 

---