628
Opinion of the Court
insufficient in many instances, and it was settled early that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give Congress a general power to prohibit discrimination in public accommodations, Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 3, 25 (1883). In consequence, most States have chosen to counter discrimination by enacting detailed statutory schemes. See, e. g., S. D. Codified Laws §§ 20-13-10, 20-13-22, 20-13-23 (1995); Iowa Code §§ 216.6-216.8 (1994); Okla. Stat., Tit. 25, §§ 1302, 1402 (1987); 43 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 953, 955 (Supp. 1995); N. J. Stat. Ann. §§ 10:5-3, 10:5-4 (West Supp. 1995); N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 354-A:7, 354-A:10, 354-A:17 (1995); Minn. Stat. § 363.03 (1991 and Supp. 1995).
Colorado's state and municipal laws typify this emerging tradition of statutory protection and follow a consistent pattern. The laws first enumerate the persons or entities subject to a duty not to discriminate. The list goes well beyond the entities covered by the common law. The Boulder ordinance, for example, has a comprehensive definition of entities deemed places of "public accommodation." They include "any place of business engaged in any sales to the general public and any place that offers services, facilities, privileges, or advantages to the general public or that receives financial support through solicitation of the general public or through governmental subsidy of any kind." Boulder Rev. Code § 12-1-1( j) (1987). The Denver ordinance is of similar breadth, applying, for example, to hotels, restaurants, hospitals, dental clinics, theaters, banks, common carriers, travel and insurance agencies, and "shops and stores dealing with goods or services of any kind," Denver Rev. Municipal Code, Art. IV, § 28-92 (1991).
These statutes and ordinances also depart from the common law by enumerating the groups or persons within their ambit of protection. Enumeration is the essential device used to make the duty not to discriminate concrete and to provide guidance for those who must comply. In following this approach, Colorado's state and local governments have
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