The United States Supreme Court has agreed that it will hear a case examining whether a business has the right under the First Amendment of U.S. Constitution to discriminate against LGBTQ clients.
Lorie Smith, a web design professional from Denver, Colorado has asserted that her speech and religious freedom rights were violatedBecause of the state law banning discrimination against LGBTQ customers. Smith stated that she didn’t want the state to force her to design wedding websites for couples of same gender. She sued the state in federal courts.
Smith claims that serving LGBTQ customers would be a good idea. go against her Christian faith, lost her suit in district court, and lost her appeal in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last summer. The Supreme Court granted her a hearing on Tuesday, but rejected her appeal on the grounds of First Amendment religious rights.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether applying a public accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” the Court wrote in its order.
Colorado’s Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser spoke out against the Court’s decision to take the case.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that anti-discrimination laws, like Colorado’s, apply to all businesses selling goods and services. Companies cannot turn away LGBT customers just because of who they are,” Weiser said.
As such, the Court’s ruling could have important implications. 20 states in the U.S. have laws that are similar to Colorado’sThis bans businesses from discriminating against LGBTQ clients or customers.
The case will be heard during the Court’s next term, which begins in October. However, President Joe Biden will nominate (and possibly confirm) a new justice at that time, the Supreme Court’s ideology will still lean heavily to the right, as it currently has a 6-3 balance in favor of the conservative bloc of justices. Biden’s nominee will not change that balance, as whoever he picks will be replacing outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal.
This case follows a 2018 Court decision that involved a baker refusing cakes for same-sex couples. In that case the Court sided with the baker, but ruled in a narrow way that didn’t rely upon First Amendment arguments on speech or religion. Rather, the Court found that the application of the law, by Colorado’s civil rights commission, was unfairly hostile toward the plaintiff in the case.
This case was decided in an ideologically more balanced Court, when Justice Anthony Kennedy (a moderate) was on the bench. Since then, the Supreme Court shifted decisively to the left. particularly on issues of religious freedomThis is due in part to Justice Amy Coney Barrett stepping in for Kennedy in late 2020.
Although the case was granted, it would only address speech rights, many social-media users thought that the Court would rule in such a way as to give religious conservatives more freedom in discriminating against LGBTQ persons.
“This will be another major step by Supreme Court to limit LGBTQ rights and chip away at marriage equality,” said radio host and author Michelangelo Signorile. “No question.”
Some are demanding that the Biden administration address attacks on LGBTQ Rights.
“The Supreme Court is about to dismantle civil rights laws for everyone as we know it while abusing LGBTQ Americans,” said Anthony Michael KreissGeorgia State University law professor. “And Congress will twiddle thumbs. Biden will make a speech. Legal academics will also try to pack the Court. The Court must be brought to heel.”
