Gifford v. McCarthy (New York)

A New York farm that also functions as a wedding venue refused to host a wedding ceremony for a same-sex couple, citing religious disagreement with such unions, and was sued under New York’s Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The farm argued that it should be exempt from the statute’s reach for a number of reasons, including that it was not a public accommodation, that it had not discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation, and that its decision was protected by the First Amendment. Our amicus brief on behalf of New York’s small business community argued that those arguments were incorrect and that broad and uniform application of anti-discrimination laws is good for the economy.