Sotomayor, J., dissenting
against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.” 42 U. S. C. §12182(a).
Not only have public accommodations laws expanded to recognize more forms of unjust discrimination, such as discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, such laws have also expanded to include more goods and services as “public accommodations.” What began with common inns, carriers, and smiths has grown to include restaurants, bars, movie theaters, sports arenas, retail stores, salons, gyms, hospitals, funeral homes, and transportation networks. See nn. 1–2, supra; L. Lerman & A. Sanderson, Discrimination in Access to Public Places: A Survey of State and Federal Public Accommodations Laws, 7 N. Y. U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 215, 217 (1978) (“ ‘Public accommodations’ is a term of art which was developed by the drafters of discrimination laws to refer to [public] places other than schools, work places, and homes”). Today, laws like Colorado’s cover “any place of business engaged in any sales to the public and any place offering services … to the public.” Colo. Rev. Stat. §24–34–601(1); see also, e.g., Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §4112.01(9). Numerous other States extend such protections to businesses offering goods or services to “the general public.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §41–1441(2); see also, e.g., Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 272, §92A.
This broader scope, though more inclusive than earlier state public accommodations laws, is in keeping with the fundamental principle—rooted in the common law, but alive and blossoming in statutory law—that the duty to serve without unjust discrimination is owed to everyone, and it extends to any business that holds itself out as ready to serve the public. If you have ever taken advantage of a public business without being denied service because of who you are, then you have come to enjoy the dignity and freedom that this principle protects.
