Never mind making a cake. You can refuse to serve someone simply because you don’t like their politics according to a judge in New York. There are two differences between this and the cake ruling just handed down by the Supreme Court.  The first is that wearing a MAGA hat doesn’t make you constitutionally protected.  Yeah, I know, free speech.  That’s not what they argued.  They said Make America Great Again was a religious expression.  I didn’t really buy that either.

The other difference is that the bar wasn’t asked to serve him a specialty drink celebrating his politics.  In other words, it’s not like he walked in and asked the bar to make him a MAGA Mai Tai*.  He was refused general services based on his politics.

Actually, this is a victory for the freedom of business owners. The judge’s interpretation is that since he wasn’t kicked out specifically for his religious views (or any other civil rights protected status), it was A-OK. So you could refuse to serve someone for being a liberal, for wearing saggy pants, or many other reasons.  You could kick out anyone who wears a suit and tie on Sunday morning and say it was how they dressed, not their religion.

In Chicago, if you happen to be one of the handful of conservatives left, you could even refuse to serve blacks just with the basic assumption that they are all voting Democrat. The DNC assumes that, it’d be reasonable for you to as well. Of course, everyone has conveniently forgotten that back in the day it WAS the Democrats who refused to serve blacks.

Freedom not to serve people is also a victory for consumers. After all, if someone hates you because of how you look, what you wear, or who you vote for, why would you want to give them money? If I’m about to walk into an establishment and buy their stuff, I actually wouldn’t mind if they met me with a sign that says “don’t pay me, I hate you”. Or as Trump haters put it, “I love everyone except for you”. Sounds more warm and fuzzy when they put it that way.

*MAGA Mai Tai – Regular Mai Tai served in a whiskey glass so you get the fruity goodness but still look macho drinking it. No umbrellas.