Brooks: SCOTUS Choosing Free Expression over Nondiscrimination Does ‘Great Harm’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that the Supreme Court’s decision that Colorado cannot force a website designer to create messages that support same-sex marriage was a choice between “artistic expression against nondiscrimination,” and the court choosing free expression “strikes me, just as someone who lives in American society, as doing great harm to American society.”

Brooks said, “I’m not qualified to give it a legal opinion. I’m not a lawyer, so I look at it, is it good or bad for society? And so, in this case, you had the right for artistic expression against nondiscrimination, and it was a contest between those two. And the court chose free expression. That strikes me, just as someone who lives in American society, as doing great harm to American society. It seems to me the idea that we do not discriminate in our businesses is just — that’s much more a serious thing to break that than to restrict someone who’s really running a business, not just painting a painting, but is running a business. And if that person who’s running a business is allowed to discriminate, it seems to me, it’s just a poison in our society.”

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