The administration says other types of wedding vendors -- including hotels, banquet halls and limousine services -- can be required to comply with anti-discrimination laws.
The administration "came up with a pretty narrow rule," said Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. "It seems uniquely well-tailored to persuade Justice Kennedy that he can rule for the First Amendment here without calling broader anti-discrimination laws into question."
At the same time, "he will be skeptical of any rule or law that calls the equality and dignity of gays and lesbians into question," Rosen said. "It could well be a very hard case of the kind he agonizes about."
The case, which the court will decide by June, is Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 16-111.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.