TY - JOUR
T1 - Religious exemptions increase discrimination toward same-sex couples
T2 - Evidence from masterpiece cakeshop
AU - Barak-Corren, Netta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in favor of a baker who refused service to a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs. This article examines the behavioral effect of this decision in an experiment that measured discrimination toward same-sex couples from 1,155 wedding businesses shortly before and after Masterpiece. I find that Masterpiece significantly reduced the willingness to serve same-sex couples as compared with opposite-sex couples, even among previously willing vendors. Considering the variety of vendors involved in a typical wedding, I estimate the odds that same-sex couples would experience discrimination after Masterpiece to be between 61 percent and 85 percent. These results show that even a narrowly construed exemption can have a significant and robust, even if inadvertent, impact on a market and its customers. I discuss the implications of these results for research on Supreme Court effects on the public.
AB - In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in favor of a baker who refused service to a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs. This article examines the behavioral effect of this decision in an experiment that measured discrimination toward same-sex couples from 1,155 wedding businesses shortly before and after Masterpiece. I find that Masterpiece significantly reduced the willingness to serve same-sex couples as compared with opposite-sex couples, even among previously willing vendors. Considering the variety of vendors involved in a typical wedding, I estimate the odds that same-sex couples would experience discrimination after Masterpiece to be between 61 percent and 85 percent. These results show that even a narrowly construed exemption can have a significant and robust, even if inadvertent, impact on a market and its customers. I discuss the implications of these results for research on Supreme Court effects on the public.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110678331&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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AN - SCOPUS:85110678331
SN - 0047-2530
VL - 50
SP - 75
EP - 110
JO - Journal of Legal Studies
JF - Journal of Legal Studies
IS - 1
ER -