A More Compelling Question Presented

The Supreme Court now has before it the cert petition and BIO in Elane Photography, LLC v. Willock. This is the case out of the New Mexico Supreme Court where Elane Photography refused to supply its wedding photography services to a same-sex couple. On appeal, Elane Photography challenges the validity of a New Mexico public accommodations law that presumably required it to take the wedding photos. It's a First Amendment challenge.

Here's what caught my eye: Not the question presented in the petition, but the question presented as formulated by petitioner's amici Cato Institute.

It states, simply: "Does the First Amendment protect the right of a photographer to refuse to take a photograph?"

I find that short question presented far more compelling than the one framed by petitioner. I won't reproduce it here because it's rather bulky. Suffice it to say that Cato Institute's formulation was more elegant. Ilya Shapiro and Eugene Volokh were on the brief.