The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot require an anti-LGBTQ Colorado Christian business owner to provide a service, if doing so would violate their personal beliefs. The case, 303 Creative vs. Elenis, was argued on First Amendment free speech grounds.
“The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” the Court ruled on Friday, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines.
On Friday, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, ruled in favor of the Colorado designer who claims she would like to expand her business to include producing wedding websites, but also claims her Christian faith requires her to refuse to do so for same-sex couples getting married. Colorado law bans discrimination against sex and sexual orientation. She sued for the right to not be subject to the Colorado statute.
“The case, though framed as clash between free speech and gay rights, was the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious people and groups, notably conservative Christians,” The New York Times reports. “The decision also appeared to suggest that the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people, including to same-sex marriage, are on more vulnerable legal footing, particularly when they are at odds with claims of religious freedom. At the same time, the ruling limited the ability of the governments to enforce anti-discrimination laws.”
Her case, initially filed in Colorado in 2016, was filed as a preemptive strike – it did not include any documentation that she had suffered any injury. After critics pointed out no same-sex couple had asked her to design a wedding website for them, attorneys provided a document allegedly from a San Francisco designer that said he and his same-sex partner were getting married, and indicted he might like Smith to design a wedding website.
But a bombshell report by The New Republic‘s Melissa Gira Grant, published Thursday, reveals that man says he never contacted Smith, at the time of the alleged request he was married to a woman, and he happens to be a designer. He lives in California, and has never heard of Smith. He also opposes her discriminatory viewpoint.
Justice Gorsuch in his majority opinion wrote, “Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing the dissent for the minority, said: “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”
Oral arguments were held in December of last year. Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson argued the case against Smith. Smith is represented by Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Colorado law guarantees “equal access to public accommodations, housing, and employment regardless of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation (including transgender status), marital status, family status, religion, national origin, or ancestry,” according to the LGBTQ advocacy organization One Colorado.