<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1670620613920,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1670620613920,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_70620607", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1202058"} }); ","_id":"00000184-f8bf-d9ef-afae-f9bf84f40000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe lead attorney who represented Colorado web designer Lorie Smith before the Supreme Court this week said she believed Justice Amy Coney Barrett “identified the real issue” in her client’s fight to refuse working on same-sex wedding websites, which violates her sincere religious beliefs.
Smith, a Littleton-based web and graphics designer, was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom CEO and attorney Kristen Waggoner, who told the Washington Examiner that Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act caused her client a six-year “constitutional injury” because it would compel her to create messages for clients whose lifestyle goes against Smith’s religious conscience.
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“In terms of Justice Barrett’s question, I thought that it identified the real issue here, which, again, is about what the message is and not who the person is,” Waggoner said, noting that Smith “serves everyone” and has worked on projects in the past for LGBT clients.
Lorie Smith, Kristen Waggoner
During oral arguments over the case on Dec. 5, Barrett echoed Waggoner’s point that Smith’s dispute is “about the message” after she posed a hypothetical scenario on whether she would design a website for a heterosexual couple getting married after divorcing other people. Waggoner said her client would likely not design for the hypothetical couple.
Smith, who began her company 303 over a decade ago, told the Washington Examiner in a previous interview that Colorado’s law has kept her from starting her wedding website business.
Waggoner added that Justice Neil Gorsuch’s arguments on Monday also captured the crux of Smith’s argument when he compared the web designer’s situation to speechwriters being forced to write a press release on something they oppose.
“What [Smith says] is ‘We will not sell to anyone, anyone, a message that I disagree with as a matter of religious faith,’” Gorsuch said. “Just as a speechwriter says for the press release or the freelance writer says, ‘I will not sell to anyone a speech that offends my religious beliefs.’”
Both Barrett and Gorsuch were appointees of former President Donald Trump, who also nominated Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the bench in 2018.
In the last term, Gorsuch authored the 6-3 opinion in favor of a football coach who had been suspended by a Washington public school district for praying at midfield after games.
Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson, a Democrat, defended the state’s law on Monday, arguing that a free speech clause exemption Smith’s company is seeking would have far-reaching ramifications beyond the narrow request Smith is making.
“The free speech clause exemption the company seeks here is sweeping because it would apply not just to sincerely held religious beliefs, like those of the company and its owner, but also to all sorts of racist, sexist, and bigoted views,” Olson said.
Likewise, three of the court’s Democratic-appointed justices appeared to share similar concerns as Olson, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“How about people who don’t believe in interracial marriage or people who don’t believe disabled people should be married?” Sotomayor asked. “Where’s the line?”
The Biden administration and LGBT advocacy groups also backed Colorado’s position in the case. A ruling over the matter won’t be out for months but will come ahead of the term’s conclusion in late June.
