The Supreme Court Friday ruled for a Christian web designer in Colorado who refused to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings due to her religious objections.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Lorie Smith, who had sued the state of Colorado over its anti-discrimination law prohibiting the denial of services based on a customer’s sexual orientation. Smith argued that the law infringed on her First Amendment rights by forcing her to create messages that violated her deeply held religious beliefs.
The Court held that “The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees.”
Smith’s web design business, 303 Creative, launched a decade ago, and she wanted to expand the company to create wedding websites to express God’s “design for marriage as a union between one man and one woman.” She also wanted to post a message on her website saying same-sex marriage is “a story about marriage that contradicts God’s true story of marriage.”
Fearing she would run afoul of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, she filed for a declaratory judgment. She lost in the lower and federal appeals courts, but then appealed to the Supreme Court.
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Writing for the majority, Justice Gorsuch opined: “The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy. In this case, 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.”
The ruling added that “Abiding the Constitution’s commitment to the freedom of speech means all will encounter ideas that are ‘misguided, or even hurtful.’ Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation’s answer is tolerance, not coercion. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the majority opinion, joined by John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent, which Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined.
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