Colorado woman’s refusal to serve same-sex couples goes to Supreme Court

A Colorado web designer wants to deny LGBTQ+ couples service, and Colorado doesn’t seem to be here for it!

On Tuesday morning, The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving web designer Lorie Smith and her “religious freedom” to discriminate. Smith wants to expand her wedding website services, but wants to object to providing those services for same-sex couples, according to the Associated Press. 

However, these “religious beliefs”, which Smith has requested she include on her website, would be in violation of Colorado’s antidiscrimination law. Smith unsurprisingly and expedly argues that this law violates her free speech and religious rights. 

The Supreme Court said that it would only look into the free speech issue, not the religious rights portion of her argument. According to the New York Times, her case will have to wait until the fall (hopefully never), and will examine “whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.”

Apparently, Smith tried it last year, when the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Smith’s attempt to overturn a lower court ruling that threw out her legal challenge ina 2-1 ruling. But, as we can clearly, Smith is persistent in her quest to discriminate. 

It seems that many people in the state of Colorado are annoyed with the fact that the state will not allow them to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community. The Colorado law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is the same law that Colorado baker Jack Phillips challenged back in 2018, according to The Advocate. 

Though the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had acted with anti-religious bias in fining Phillips for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding and voided the commission’s decision against Phillips, the court never made a decision in regards to the bigger issue – Whether businesses can invoke religious objections to refuse service to LGBTQ+ people. Now, it seems, they are also taking a stand against that.

According to Colorado’s Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, “Colorado has a compelling interest in protecting both the dignity and interests of members of marginalized groups and their material interests in accessing the commercial marketplace.” 

And that’s what they have to say about that!