The Supreme Court agreed this week to take up the case of Lorie Smith, a Colorado web designer who filed a lawsuit against the state over a coercive “anti-discrimination” law that would force her to use her talents to promote messages contrary to her religious beliefs. The case is an opportunity for the court to do what it should have done in 2018 and make clear, once and for all, that artists and business owners cannot be forced to convey messages that violate their consciences.
In question here is the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, an insidious law that Colorado’s bigoted Civil Rights Commission used to intimidate and punish baker Jack Phillips because he did not want to create a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. Like Smith, Phillips took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. But although the justices ruled in his favor in Masterpiece Cakeshop, they did so on extremely narrow grounds, avoiding the question of religious freedom and how it should have applied to this case altogether. And, as a result, Phillips has been repeatedly hauled into court thanks to leftist activists who have targeted him deliberately.
Smith understands that what happened to Phillips could very well happen to her, too, if Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act stays in place. That’s why she filed a preemptive lawsuit against the state, arguing that the law poses an enormous threat to creatives and business owners who dare to hold beliefs the Left considers discriminatory.
The stakes of this case could not be higher. Christian creatives across the country have faced enormous losses over the past several years because government officials like those on Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission believe they have the right and responsibility to decide what messages these creatives must convey. Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman was forced to retire and give up the business she spent years building. Photographers Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin in New Mexico and bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein in Oregon were forced to watch as their businesses were run into the ground. Photographer Emilee Carpenter in New York could face up to a year in jail, and photographer Bob Updegrove in Virginia could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, all because of personal religious beliefs.
The Supreme Court owes these religious artists relief. One of the fundamental ideals of the First Amendment is that the government cannot force people to say or support things that violate their beliefs. A gay baker, for example, cannot be forced to condemn same-sex weddings for the same reasons a Christian baker cannot be forced to promote them. It’s this pesky little thing called freedom.
Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are both under attack here, and it is the court’s responsibility to defend them.
Kaylee McGhee White is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.
