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20 which until then had denied admission to women. The organization alleged that applying the law to require it to include women would violate its “members’ constitutional rights of free speech and association.” 468 U. S., at 615. “The power of the state to change the membership of an organization is inevitably the power to change the way in which it speaks,” the Jaycees argued. Brief for Appellee, O. T. 1983, No. 83–724, p. 19 (emphasis added). Thus, “the right of the Jaycees to decide its own membership” was “inseparable,” in its view, “from its ability to freely express itself.” Ibid.

This Court took a different view. The Court held that the “application of the Minnesota statute to compel the Jaycees to accept women” did not infringe the organization’s First Amendment “freedom of expressive association.” Roberts, 468 U. S., at 622. That was so because the State’s public accommodations law did “not aim at the suppression of speech” and did “not distinguish between prohibited and permitted activity on the basis of viewpoint.” Id., at 623–624. If the State had applied the law “for the purpose of hampering the organization’s ability to express its views,” that would be a different matter. Id., at 624 (emphasis added). “Instead,” the law’s purpose was “eliminating discrimination and assuring [the State’s] citizens equal access to publicly available goods and services.” Ibid. “That goal,” the Court reasoned, “was unrelated to the suppression of expression” and “plainly serves compelling state interests of the highest order.” Ibid.

Justice O’Connor concurred in part and concurred in the judgment. See id., at 631. She stressed that the U. S. Jaycees was a predominantly commercial entity open to the public. And she took the view that there was a First Amendment “dichotomy” between rights of commercial and expressive association. Id., at 634. The State, for example, was “free to impose any rational regulation” on commercial transactions themselves. “A shopkeeper,” Justice O’Connor