WASHINGTON — In a defeat for LGBTQ+ rights, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Christian artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights.
Smith’s opponents warned that a victory for her would allow a variety of businesses to discriminate, refusing to serve black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants. But Smith and her supporters had said a ruling against her would force artists, from painters and photographers to writers and musicians, to do work that goes against their beliefs.
“The First Amendment views America as a rich and complex place where all people are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government requires,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s six conservative justices.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent that was joined by other liberals on the court. “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public the constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” Sotomayor wrote.
SUPREME COURT RECORD ON SIMILAR CASES
The decision is a victory for religious rights and one of a series of cases in recent years in which judges have sided with religious plaintiffs. Last year, for example, the court ruled along ideological lines in favor of a football coach who prayed on the field of his public high school after games.
The decision is also a withdrawal on gay rights for the court. For two decades, the court has expanded the rights of LGBTQ+ people, most notably granting same-sex couples the right to marry in 2015 and announcing five years later that a landmark civil rights law also protects gay and lesbian people. and transgender from employment discrimination. That civil rights law decision was also written by Gorsuch.
He is the second judge to come under scrutiny this year for ethics issues
Yet even as it has expanded gay rights, the court has been careful to say that those with different religious views must be respected. The belief that marriage can only be between a man and a woman is an idea that “has long been held, and continues to be held, in good faith by reasonable and sincere persons here and throughout the world,” wrote the Judge Anthony Kennedy in the court decision on gay marriage.
The court took up that idea five years ago when faced with the case of a Christian baker who objected to designing a cake for a same-sex wedding. The court entered a limited ruling in favor of the baker, Jack Phillips, saying there had been impermissible hostility toward his religious views in considering his case. Phillips’ attorney, Kristen Wagoner of Alliance Defending Freedom, also took the latest case to court.
The US Supreme Court said Friday it will no longer stand in the way of a long-stalled Biden administration policy.
WHAT THE WEB DESIGNER SAYS
Smith, who owns a design company in Colorado called 303 Creative, currently doesn’t create wedding websites. She has said she wants to, but her Christian faith would prevent her from creating websites celebrating same-sex marriages. And that’s where she runs afoul of state law.
Colorado, like most other states, has a law that prohibits businesses that are open to the public from discriminating against customers. Colorado said that under its so-called public accommodations law, if Smith offers wedding websites to the public, he must provide them to all customers, regardless of sexual orientation.
Companies that violate the law can be fined, among other things. Smith argued that applying the law to him violates his First Amendment rights. The state disagreed.
The case is 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, 21-476.
