Supreme Court takes up anti-gay website designer's case

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : In July 2021, the appeals court ruled 2-1 that businesses that open themselves up to the public must provide services for same-sex marriages if they offer the same services for opposite-sex weddings.
50% : She further claims that the products she creates are a form of "artistic expression" that should be protected under the First Amendment, and therefore, she should be exempt from having to abide by Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act.
48% : On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a case brought by a Colorado website designer who is seeking an exemption that would allow her to refuse to provide services to same-sex couples getting married.
48% : Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the client in that case as well, has pushed for the Supreme Court to take up the Colorado case, in the hope that a decision carving out religious exemptions for Smith will provide a path forward for others who wish to deny services to LGBTQ individuals or same-sex couples.
47% : In a brief order, the Supreme Court said it would take up the case to consider "whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, reports NBC News.
46% : "The record contains no evidence that anyone has asked the company to create a website for a same-sex wedding, that Colorado has threatened enforcement, or that any future wedding website would convey a message that would be attributed to the company," the state argued in its legal filings, noting that even if a business were to offer a service with an expressive element, a reasonable person would assume the message expresses the views of the customers who purchased the service, not the business that created or provided it.
45% : Smith's lawyers have argued that Colorado's law "compels speech based on viewpoint, and creates a pro-LGBT gerrymander by requiring religious artists to celebrate same-sex marriage while allowing other artists to decline messages like 'God is dead.'"The state of Colorado, in asking the court not to take up the case, argued that no burden has been placed on Smith and that the state has taken no action against her.
44% : Smith's lawsuit was dismissed in May 2019, on the grounds that she had filed suit before the state had taken any action against her -- or before she had even been asked to create a website for a same-sex couple -- and thus, had no grounds to sue.
42% : In that 7-2 decision, the court sided with Phillips, but did not elaborate on the type and scope of exemptions -- if any -- that could or should be provided to business owners with so-called "sincerely-held religious beliefs" opposing same-sex marriage.
33% : The designer, Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, claims that being forced to provide wedding-related website services for same-sex couples would violate her religious beliefs opposing homosexuality.
33% : A federal district judge ruled against her in September 2019, finding that her proposal to post a statement outlining her objection to promoting same-sex weddings "proposes an unlawful act" because it proposes to illegally deny services to same-sex couples on the basis of their sexual orientation.

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