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Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

Keywords

Public accommodations, Sexual orientation, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Abstract

Greg Alexander's monumental contributions to our understanding of property and property law are unequaled. He is also a mensch and that comes through loud and clear in his work. His recent book, Property and Human Flourishing, develops a quasi-Aristotelian theory of property that focuses our attention on the ways property law protects plural incommensurable objective values that regulate social relationships in order to empower us to become the authors of our own lives. This Essay honors him and his contributions by applying his analysis to the fraught question of whether owners of public accommodations must serve the public without regard to sexual orientation when this violates the owner's core religious commitments. Alexander's theory suggests a way to rewrite the Supreme Court's opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission to attend to the religious liberties of both owners of public accommodations and their customers while protecting equal rights to participate in the marketplace. Property is not about things but about who we are and what it means to be human and humane.

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