The freedom to uphold an unpopular opinion - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : Gallup reported this month that support for same-sex marriage is now at 71 percent, an all-time high.
58% : Now the court seems ready to squarely face the hard questions: Under the First Amendment, can artists and designers be compelled, on nondiscrimination grounds, to convey a view of which they disapprove?
53% : But the First Amendment is not in the Constitution to shelter popular opinions.
51% : Colorado acknowledges that she "will gladly create custom graphics and websites for gay, lesbian, or bisexual clients" and that she objects only to using her talents to create content that violates her religious beliefs.
51% : "The First Amendment," declared Chief Justice Warren Burger's majority opinion, "protects the right of individuals to hold a point of view different from the majority and to refuse to foster . . .
50% : Though the First Amendment was ratified in 1791, it was only 80 years ago that the Supreme Court began to grapple with such questions in earnest.
49% : In an epic decision, Justice Robert Jackson declared that the protection of conscience and the right of dissent went to the very core of the First Amendment -- above all when the stakes were greatest.
49% : The real test of that freedom "is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."Then came one of the most lyrical and stirring passages ever penned in defense of free speech:"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
47% : Overruling its precedent, it struck down the West Virginia law as unconstitutional -- not on the grounds of religious freedom but of free speech.
46% : He was the author of the court's opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that the right to same-sex marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution and may not be denied by any state.
44% : He went on to underscore that the First Amendment rights of Americans who disagree with same-sex marriage must be "given proper protection" by government.
41% : Nonetheless, his decision stressed that those "who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here."
34% : She opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds and does not want to design websites promoting something she believes is wrong.

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