SCOTUS leans in favor of Christian web designer seeking to refuse same-sex weddings
The US Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Monday seemed to lean in favor of an evangelical Christian web designer who is seeking to refuse working on same-sex weddings based on her religious beliefs.
Justices heard more than two hours of oral arguments in the case of Lorie Smith, 38, who sued the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2016 over state anti-discrimination laws barring her from advertising that she won’t create websites for couples of the same sex.
Among those seeming to side with Smith was Justice Samuel Alito, who posed a hypothetical about a person offering to write speeches or wedding vows, asking, “Can they be forced to write vows or speeches that espouse things they loath?”
Justice Neil Gorsuch, meanwhile, referred to Smith as “an individual who says she will sell and does sell to everyone, all manner of websites, (but) that she won’t sell a website that requires her to express a view about marriage that she finds offensive.”
“Colorado is compelling and censoring my speech and forcing me to design and create custom artwork that celebrates messages that go against my deeply held beliefs,” Smith has said previously. “My faith is at the core of who I am.”
Under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, businesses are not allowed to deny the public their goods and services based on race, gender, sexual orientation and religion and they can’t post notices doing so either.
Eric Olson, the Colorado Solicitor General, argued on Monday that Smith wants a “license to discriminate” — and was pressed by Justice Clarence Thomas over the lack of precedence in allowing accommodation laws to dictate or curb free speech.
But the liberal justices expressed concern on the slippery slope of setting a precedent in favor of Smith.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said: “How about people who don’t believe in interracial marriage? Or about people who don’t believe that disabled people should get married? Where’s the line?”
Alito pushed back, asking if it’s “fair to equate opposition to same-sex marriage to opposition to interracial marriage?”
Justice Elena Kagan pointed out that wedding websites provide basic biographical and location information as well as photos.
“If I understand you, you’re saying, ‘Yes, she can refuse,’ because there’s ideology just in the fact that it’s Mike and Harry, and there’s a picture of these two guys together,” Kagan said.
Smith argues Centennial State law clashes with her rights to free speech and to refuse business that conflicts with her religious beliefs.
Her lawyer Kristen Waggoner told the justices, Smith “believes opposite-sex marriage honors scripture and same-sex marriage contradicts it.”
Olson warned that if Smith wins, businesses could refuse business based on “all sorts of racist, sexist and bigoted views.””A company just cannot refuse to serve gay couples, as it seeks to do here, just as a Christmas store cannot announce, ‘No Jews allowed,'” Olson said.
The married mother of one — who owns graphic design firm 303 Creative LLC — maintains she has no issue working with LGBTQ clients on other projects that don’t involve marriage and has done so in the past.
There have been calls for Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from Smith’s case as a devout Catholic.
The high court — which currently has a majority of conservative judges — legalized gay marriage in 2015.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is expected to issue its decision by the end of June.
With Post wires
