TIMES LIVE
In a blow to LGBTQ+ rights, the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Friday ruled that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings, a decision that the dissenting liberal justices called a “licence to discriminate”.
The justices ruled 6-3 along ideological lines in favour of Denver-area web designer Lorie Smith, who cited her Christian beliefs in challenging a Colorado anti-discrimination law. The justices overturned a lower court’s ruling that had rejected Smith’s bid for an exemption from a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and other factors.
Smith’s business, called 303 Creative, sells custom web designs, but she opposed providing her services for same-sex weddings.
Conservative justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the ruling that Colorado’s law would force Smith to create speech that she does not believe, in violation of the US constitution’s First Amendment.
“Were the rule otherwise, the better the artist, the finer the writer, the more unique his talent, the more easily his voice could be conscripted to disseminate the government’s preferred messages. That would not respect the First Amendment; more nearly, it would spell its demise,” Gorsuch wrote.
“The First Amendment envisions the US as a rich and complex place where all people are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” Gorsuch added.
