If the law specifies that bathrooms should be segrated by gender at birth, how is this discrimination?
Not discrimination in that context. It is a matter of the relationship of the states to one another. States cannot engage in trade wars with one another for example. States cannot ban interstate travel for its citizens. This is not a 14th amendment issue. I was just pointing out this is like 14th amendment cases with de factor vs. de jure, but this is not a 14th amendment case. This deals with other parts of the Constitution. What California is doing seems to be against the entire point of the Constitution in the first place. This is not state versus people discrimination, this is state versus state, and I am not sure a state can overtly discriminate against another state in this manner (but I could be wrong). The question is, is this state power reserved under the 10th amendment or is it somehow under the comity clause. My first impression is this goes against the point of the Constitution, but I acknowledge I may be overly broadly interpreting the comity clause.
Alexander Hamilton (who I hate to quote) wrote in Federalist 80 "
It may be esteemed the basis of the Union, that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States.'" He was making an argument for the national judiciary, but I do agree that keeping peace among the states and preventing these types of disputes was the entire point of switching from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution (stability among the states). My interpretation may be too broad and I am
generally in favor of states' rights, but this sort of action seems to go against the entire point of the Constitution. Like I said, I am not sure that even Southern firebrand secessionists in the 1850s would have agreed to a state doing this. However, I would need to look more into comity cases in the 1850s for answers. Like I said earlier, regardless, California is on a dangerous 1850s/1780s path of instability among the states with actions like this.
There is also a commerce clause issue. A "dormant commerce clause" has been inferred by courts from the commerce clause. The commerce clause "
grant of power implies a negative converse—a restriction prohibiting a state from passing legislation that improperly burdens or discriminates against interstate commerce." "Justice Anthony Kennedy has written that: '
The central rationale for the rule against discrimination is to prohibit state or municipal laws whose object is local economic protectionism, laws that would excite those jealousies and retaliatory measures the Constitution was designed to prevent.'" Of course, this California law is not economic protectionism. However, my point is this is an economic law that can lead to "retaliatory measures" and we already went down that path in the 1850s....