Page:303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.pdf/61

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)
29

Sotomayor, J., dissenting

newlywed gay or lesbian couple, even if she believes the couple is not, in fact, just married because in her view their marriage is “false.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 36, 40–41.

3

Because any burden on petitioners’ speech is incidental to CADA’s neutral regulation of commercial conduct, the regulation is subject to the standard set forth in O’Brien. That standard is easily satisfied here because the law’s application “promotes a substantial government interest that would be achieved less effectively absent the regulation.” FAIR, 547 U. S., at 67 (internal quotation marks omitted). Indeed, this Court has already held that the State’s goal of “eliminating discrimination and assuring its citizens equal access to publicly available goods and services” is “unrelated to the suppression of expression” and “plainly serves compelling state interests of the highest order.” Roberts, 468 U. S., at 624. The Court has also held that by prohibiting only “acts of invidious discrimination in the distribution of publicly available goods, services, and other advantages,” the law “responds precisely to the substantive problem which legitimately concerns the State and abridges no more speech … than is necessary to accomplish that purpose.” Id., at 628–629 (emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted); see supra, at 4–7.

C

The Court reaches the wrong answer in this case because it asks the wrong questions. The question is not whether the company’s products include “elements of speech.” FAIR, 547 U. S., at 61. (They do.) The question is not even whether CADA would require the company to create and sell speech, notwithstanding the owner’s sincere objection to doing so, if the company chooses to offer “such speech” to the public. Id., at 62. (It would.) These questions do not resolve the First Amendment inquiry any more than they