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What is the significance of the Supreme Court case ROBERTS v.
UNITED STATES?
The case established a framework for analyzing claims of associative freedom, which has become the prevailing test used by the Supreme Court.
The Court unanimously ruled that the Minnesota law prohibiting gender discrimination in places of public accommodation was constitutional.
The Court found that the law protected the state's citizens from serious social and personal harms by assuring women equal access to public accommodations.
The case was the first Supreme Court decision to test the constitutional limits of public accommodations laws.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that requiring the Jaycees to admit women as full voting members violated the organization's right to free association.
The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that the government's interest in preventing discrimination was sufficiently compelling to justify the minimal impact on the Jaycees' associational rights.
The decision affirmed that states have a substantial interest in protecting the right of citizens to be free from invidious discrimination in access to public accommodations.
The ruling set an important precedent for reconciling individual rights of association with state laws prohibiting discrimination.
The case expanded the scope of public accommodations laws to apply to previously all-male organizations like the Jaycees.
The decision was unanimous, with all nine Justices agreeing that the Minnesota law was a valid exercise of the state's police powers.
The ruling helped pave the way for greater gender integration in formerly single-sex organizations across the country.
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