Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf
Page Number: 51

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

19 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

would “ ‘controven[e] the will of God.’ ”  390 U. S., at 402– 
403, n. 5.  The Court found this argument “patently frivo-
lous.”  Ibid. 

Last but not least is Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U. S. 160 
(1976), a case the majority studiously avoids.  In Runyon, 
the  Court  confronted  the  question  whether  “commercially
operated” schools had a First Amendment right to exclude
Black  children,  notwithstanding  a  federal  law  against  ra-
cial  discrimination  in  contracting.    Id.,  at  168;  see  42 
U. S. C. §1981.  The schools in question offered “educational
services” for sale to “the general public.”  427 U. S., at 172. 
They argued that the law, as applied to them, violated their 
First Amendment rights of “freedom of speech, and associ-
ation.”  Pet. for Cert., O. T. 1976, No. 75–62, p. 6; see also
Brief for Petitioners, O. T. 1976, No. 75–62, p. 12 (“Freedom
to teach, to express ideas”).  The Court, however, reasoned 
that the schools’ “practice” of denying educational services
to racial minorities was not shielded by the First Amend-
ment,  for  two  reasons:  First,  “the  Constitution  places  no 
value on discrimination.”  427 U. S., at 176 (alterations and 
internal  quotations  marks  omitted).    Second,  the  govern-
ment’s  regulation  of  conduct  did  not  “inhibit”  the  schools’
ability to teach its preferred “ideas or dogma.”  Ibid. (inter-
nal  quotation  marks  omitted).  Requiring  the  schools  to
abide by an antidiscrimination law was not the same thing 
as compelling the schools to express teachings contrary to
their sincerely held “belief that racial segregation is desira-
ble.”  Ibid. 

2 
First  Amendment  rights  of  expression  and  association 
were also raised to challenge laws against sex discrimina-
tion.  In Roberts v. United States Jaycees, the United States 
Jaycees  sought  an  exemption  from  a  Minnesota  law  that 
forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in public accom-
modations.    The  U. S.  Jaycees  was  a  civic  organization,