Reference no: EM133909477

Question: Many businesses today, as corporate entities other than sole proprietorships, voice their political and social views in various ways. Voicing a view is not the issue. How business is conducted, ethically and lawfully, for a secular business purpose is the focus.

The subject of LGBTQ+ rights is an evolving constitutional issue for business. The Supreme Court has sent mixed messages, and in June, 2023, further muddied the line between a business' allegation of protected "speech" versus illegal discrimination, at least when it relates to LGBTQ+ members of the public.

The fundamental concept enabling a business to operate is the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Let's start there.

Commerce is conducted in the public marketplace, which today encompasses a global internet as well as the street past your house or apartment building to the corner store.  Get Assignment Help from Trusted tutors.

Businesses do not operate in a vacuum. They are enabled by public community support in such infrastructure as utilities, roads, transport, safety and fire services, the internet service providers (part of utilities in one way or another), supply chain, and a plethora of other goods and services upon which a business and its owners rely to operate.

Unless a business by definition is serving only a limited clientele, (e.g. one church, a private club, a closed customer group), it is open to the public to whom it offers its wares or services. The business has a lot of freedom, and should have, but there are limits: cannot trade in illegal products or services; cannot operate at a location against zoning regs; cannot disturb the peace, dump toxic waste, encroach on other properties --- you begin to get the picture.  A restaurant can have dress rules - men must wear jackets and ties is an example. But that would be all men. Should it be OK to exclude African American men only, or Asians, and so forth?  What is good for business? What is fair to the public?