Jonah Goldberg: “While Jim Crow laws obviously went beyond economics, they were in their origin and greatest effect about economics. Racist Southern Democrats understood that nothing threatens discrimination more than economic liberty. Restore to blacks their God-given right to control and sell the fruits of their own labor, and the market will make enforced bigotry expensive. Without Jim Crow, bigoted businesses would suffer in the marketplace. As [Thomas] Sowell said, ‘Prejudice is free but discrimination has costs.’ Comparing RFRA laws to Jim Crow laws turns all of this on its head. Jim Crow laws forced tolerant businesses to be intolerant of blacks. No one, anywhere, is suggesting that people who want to do business with same-sex couples should be barred from doing so. The argument is whether the government should force a few ardent Christians (or Jews or Muslims) to participate in a ceremony that violates their faith. In Indiana, the most vocal and arguably the most powerful voices against even the perception of anti-gay discrimination have come from the business community. And, one suspects, there are plenty of people in the wedding-planning industry eager for such business. We could impose a fine on recalcitrant religious wedding photographers. But the market already does that, every time they turn away paying customers.”