Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Washington Post reports:
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed sympathetic Monday to an evangelical Christian graphic artist from Colorado who does not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, despite the state’s protective antidiscrimination law. Those justices seemed amenable to businesswoman Lorie Smith’s argument that the state may not compel her to create speech that violates her religious belief.
But several appeared to be looking for ways to narrow their decision, saying both sides in the dispute agreed, for example, that not all wedding vendors should receive such exemptions. A thread throughout the arguments was whether the refusal to provide wedding-related services for a same-sex couple could be compared to the same treatment of interracial couples. Smith’s attorney Kristen Waggoner [photo] said it could not.
NBC News reports:
Justices in the conservative majority seemed generally supportive of the notion that Smith should not be forced to express sentiments to which she disagrees, with Justice Clarence Thomas noting that policing speech was not how public accommodations laws like Colorado’s were traditionally applied.
“This is is not a hotel. This is not a restaurant. This is not a riverboat or a train,” he said, referring to businesses required to service all customers. Other conservative justices, including Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, asked similar questions.
Samuel Alito wondered whether a “Black Santa” who sits for photos with children over the holiday season could refuse to provide service to children wearing the white outfits characteristic of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group. Eric Olson, Colorado’s solicitor general, said the “Black Santa” would not have to be in the photograph because Ku Klux Klan outfits are not protected under Colorado’s antidiscrimination law.
Supreme Court seems to side with web designer opposed to same-sex marriage https://t.co/qx3inLGasq
— Post Politics (@postpolitics) December 5, 2022