The Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for same-sex couples in the latest conflict between religious beliefs and gay rights.
The decision was split among ideological lines, with the conservative majority ruling that the First Amendment bars Colorado from forcing "an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance."
The Colorado-based web designer, Lorie Smith, owns a design company, 303 Creative, which has served gay customers. But she hopes to start a website business to celebrate weddings and for that, wants to work only with heterosexual couples,
A state law prohibits discrimination against gay people by businesses open to the public. Smith says the law would force her and other artists to offer customized messages that violate their beliefs and First Amendment rights.
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Her opponents counter that a decision in her favor would allow businesses to discriminate against a range of customers, not only against gay couples but also interracial or interfaith couples or those who were Black, Jewish or Muslim.
During the two hours of arguments held before the Supreme Court in December, conservative justices appeared to be leaning in her favor. They probed the differences between businesses such as publishing houses that are engaged in expression and those that are limited to selling goods.
On the other side, one of the court’s three liberals, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, asked about a shopping mall Santa Claus who did not want his photograph taken with Black children. Could the photographer put up a sign that said “only white” children?
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The case follows one that arose a decade ago when a Colorado baker named Jack Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, also on religious grounds. The court ruled for the baker, but then Justice Anthony Kennedy’s narrowly decided opinion did not settle the question of whether the First Amendment allows businesses open to the public to discriminate based on religious beliefs. Rather the majority opinion centered on whether the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which ruled against Phillips, had shown itself to be hostile to religion.
Since that case, the court has shifted right. Dominated 6-3 by conservatives, it has heard a series of cases in which the justices have sided with religious plaintiffs.
And Justice Clarence Thomas has advocated for eliminating the right to a same-sex marriage.
