Courts must see small businesses, like bakeries, as individuals

Corporations, especially a publicly traded corporations, are granted certain dispensations and protections by governments on all levels, a quid pro quo that bestows limited liability in exchange for respecting the laws and civil rights of all individuals regardless of age, gender, race or sexual orientation. They are wedded to the public, inextricably, licensed and regulated to serve and abide by public laws, including civil rights protections.

Single proprietorships and partnerships, by contrast, are granted no such government aegis. They are more often than not at the mercy of a capricious free market, and therefore should be afforded the same civil rights as individuals — to cavort with whomever they please.

The Masterpiece Cake Shop of Lakewood, Colo., is not a public corporation; it’s a private concern — mostly an avocation. Good small businesses treat all their customers as theydo people in their own private domain. In 2012, two men filed a legal complaint when the cake shop owner refused to provide them with a cake for theirwedding reception, citing his religious objection to samesex marriage. The case has gone all the way to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments this week. The case of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig vs. Masterpiece Cake Shop is a de facto example of two individuals using the courts to violate the private domain of two other individuals, whoin this case, happen to be a man and his wife running a bakery. The case should have been dismissed by the local court.

If the courts apply the same logic for a corporation as they do for an individual or small business, they are violating the civil rights of every individual. Corporations are not people. They are legal entities, the same as the dictionaries define them.

If the court decides for the bakery, corporations will, by default, piggyback on their decision and take liberties to violate the civil rights of all Americans. If they side with Mr. Mullins and Mr. Craig, the prerogatives of small businesses will be challenged by litigious activists seeking redress for pettyor imagined slights.

It’s high time the courts handle corporations, small businesses and individuals separately. Allow more freedom for small businesses and individuals, and more shackles for corporations. But don’t combine the two — that will only produce a chimera.

EMIL LESTER Proprietor, City Cafe

Edgewood