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Should We Be Allowed To Discriminate?

© Beth Skinner

It is illegal in many cities and states for landlords to discriminate against potential renters. Yet two Alaskan landlords have sued the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission and won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals using the argument that it is against their religion to rent to couples who are not married. There are many who argue that the First Amendment supports the landlords' argument. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... When the government forces them to rent to couples who are unmarried, or possibly homosexuals, this does indeed violate some landlords' religious beliefs.

On whose side do your beliefs fall? The free market would dictate that the state should not be involved and the landlords should be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religious principles, or any other basis they find pertinent to their beliefs. Do you think that a white landlord should be legally forced to rent to a black man simply because of his skin color? Many people would say that no, he should not be allowed to refuse them a place to live, it should be against the law to discriminate.

Now flip around the scenario. Should the law force a black man, to rent to a white man who is obviously a racist complete with swastikas tattooed on his biceps? It's not as easy to answer this way, is it? Should a deeply religious person be required by law to rent to unmarried couples or gay couples? Even if this violates his religious beliefs? The law, in many cases, reads that he must.

One of the marvelous aspects to the free market is that discrimination can incur many costs. Imagine if you ran a private bussing service and you refused to allow women to ride your bus on the basis that you simply don't like women. How much money would you lose by refusing to let women ride your bus? In the 1960s when blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus, it was not the bus drivers who made these rules but the government. Jim Crow laws, as they were known, hurt the bussing companies because they were bad for business. The bus drivers were forced to discriminate because of government regulation.

I want to make one thing clear however: the government should not be allowed to discriminate. Take school desegregation. We all support the public schools in the form of taxes and the government should never have been allowed to keep people out of public schools based on their skin color. By the same token, the all-male military academies should never have been allowed to refuse entrance to students based on their gender. The government runs on our tax dollars and it should not be allowed to discriminate as private companies should be.

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