The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear a case over whether a wedding website designer can decline to provide services to same-sex couples under Colorado’s anti-discrimination law.
Lori Smith, a Christian graphic artist and webpage designer, is seeking to expand her services to create webpages for weddings but argues her religious convictions prevent her from making websites for same-sex couples. Her standpoint conflicts with Colorado’s civil rights laws requiring businesses to be accessible to all clients regardless of sexual orientation.
The designer is “willing to work with all people regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, and gender,” her lawyers said in court filings. “But she cannot create websites that promote messages contrary to her faith, such as messages that condone violence or promote sexual immorality, abortion, or same-sex marriage.”
ANOTHER JACK PHILLIPS? WEBSITE DESIGNER TARGETED FOR HER FAITH APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT
Smith’s case is largely a continuation of the unresolved legal questions brought in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which concerned whether a business owner could decline to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Jack Phillips, a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for two men, won the case in a 7-2 decision in 2018 after the justices found that he was unfairly treated by the state’s civil rights commission. But the justices did not rule on his constitutional claim of free speech, and this was before former President Donald Trump appointed two conservatives, Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, to the highest court.
Smith sued in pursuit of a ruling that would uphold her ability to be exempt from serving clients whose requests conflict with stiffly held religious beliefs, but she lost her case in July of last year before a federal judge and in a 2-1 decision by the 10th Circuit Court in Denver.
State attorneys argue Colorado’s law is not a restriction on free speech, saying it is a ban on discrimination by businesses engaged in commerce.
“Requiring the company to produce the same services for same-sex couples that it produces for opposite-sex couples does not require it to speak in favor of same-sex marriage,” attorneys for Colorado said.
In agreeing to hear the case Tuesday, high court justices limited the case to examine only the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights of free speech and religion and whether these warrant a limited exemption to Colorado’s civil rights law. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall.
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The website designer is represented by the same lawyers who aided Phillips in his yearslong legal battle, the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Smith’s attorneys seek a broader ruling that would give people with religious motivations a partial exemption from state laws requiring them to participate, even by proxy, in a same-sex union.
