WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples.
The court ruled 6-3 for 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 their right to freedom of expression.
Smith’s opponents warned that a win for her would allow several 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 make work that goes against their beliefs.
“The First Amendment envisions America as a rich and complex place where all people are free to think and speak as they choose, not as the government demands,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s six conservative justices.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent joined by the rest of the court’s liberals. “Today, the Courtfor the first time in its history, it gives a business open to the public the constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” Sotomayor wrote.
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 he ruled ideologically for a football coach who prayed on the field of his public high school after the games.
The decision is also a withdrawal of gay rights for the court. For two decades, the court has expanded the rights of LGBTQ people, notably giving same-sex couples the right to marry in 2015 i announcing five years later that a landmark civil rights law also protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from employment discrimination. This civil rights law decision was also written by Gorsuch.
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Although it has expanded the rights of homosexuals, however, 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 people here and around the world,” he said. write justice anthony kennedy a the gay marriage court decision.
The court returned to this 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 issued a limited judgment in favor of the baker, Jack Phillips, saying that there had been impermissible hostility towards his religious views in the consideration of his case. Phillips’ attorney, Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, also brought the most recent case to court.
Smith, who owns a Colorado design business called 303 Creative, doesn’t currently create wedding websites. He has said he wants to, but that his Christian faith would prevent him from creating websites celebrating same-sex marriages. And this is where it conflicts with state law.
Colorado, like most other states, has a law that prohibits businesses open to the public from discriminating against customers. Colorado said that under its so-called public accommodation law, if Smith offers dating websites to the public, he must provide them to all customers, regardless of sexual orientation. Companies that break the law can be fined, among other things. Smith argued that applying the law to her violates her First Amendment rights. The state disagreed.
The case is 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, 21-476.
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