Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-111_j4el.pdf
Page Number: 52

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

1 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 16–111 
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MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP, LTD., ET AL., PETITIONERS 
v. COLORADO CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF 

COLORADO
 

[June 4, 2018]

 JUSTICE  GINSBURG,  with  whom  JUSTICE  SOTOMAYOR 

joins, dissenting. 

There is much in the Court’s opinion with which I agree.
“[I]t  is  a  general  rule  that  [religious  and  philosophical] 
objections  do  not  allow  business  owners  and  other  actors 
in  the  economy  and  in  society  to  deny  protected  persons 
equal  access  to  goods  and  services  under  a  neutral  and 
generally applicable public accommodations law.”  Ante, at 
9.  “Colorado  law  can  protect  gay  persons,  just  as  it  can 
protect other classes of individuals, in acquiring whatever
products and services they choose on the same terms and 
conditions as  are  offered  to  other members  of  the  public.” 
Ante, at 10.  “[P]urveyors of goods and services who object
to gay marriages for moral and religious reasons [may not] 
put  up  signs  saying  ‘no  goods  or  services  will  be  sold  if 
they  will  be  used  for  gay  marriages.’  ”  Ante,  at  12.  Gay
persons  may  be  spared  from  “indignities  when  they  seek
goods  and  services  in  an  open  market.”  Ante,  at  18.1  I 

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1 As JUSTICE THOMAS observes, the Court does not hold that wedding 
cakes are speech or expression entitled to First Amendment protection.
See ante, at 1 (opinion concurring in part and concurring in judgment).
Nor could it, consistent with our First Amendment precedents.  JUSTICE 
THOMAS  acknowledges  that  for  conduct  to  constitute  protected  expres-
sion,  the  conduct  must  be  reasonably  understood  by  an  observer  to  be
communicative.    Ante,  at  4  (citing  Clark  v.  Community  for  Creative