A commenter asks, "how many people would (dare to) take the photographer's side here if she refused to photograph a mixed-race couple?" I should hope that virtually all of those who support Elaine Huguenin's Free Speech Clause rights would support that hypothetical photographer's constitutional rights, too. I certainly would, just as I support the constitutional rights of many people whose views I condemn.

The premise of the argument I've made is that the government may not force you to create speech that you don't want to create, whether that's an article, a press release, a photograph, or a painting. You can be a racist, anti-same-sex-marriage, a devout Catholic who doesn't want to create works celebrating a marriage of divorced people, an orthodox Jew who doesn't want to create works celebrating a marriage of Jews and non-Jews, or whatever else. It doesn't matter.

The desire to prevent race discrimination should no more dissolve your right to be free from being compelled to speak (here, to create an artistic work) than it should dissolve the right to express bigoted views, to choose members of a racist political organization, or to select ministers (or church members) based on any criteria a church pleases. And if that means that writers and photographers can't be legally barred from choosing their subjects based on race, that's just an implication of the basic First Amendment principle of the speaker's right to choose what to say.

There should be nothing particularly daring about this position.