Businesses in the U.S. can refuse to design projects per the First Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday with its 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis opinion.
“The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” said the ruling.
This case was brought by Lorie Smith, the owner and founder of a graphic design firm 303 Creative LLC, in Colorado. She opposed same-sex marriage on religious grounds and does not want to design wedding websites for them, per Oyez.
The main question before the court was whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment.
In Colorado, the Antidiscrimination Act (“CADA”) prohibits businesses that are open to the public from discriminating against customers on the basis of sexual orientation and other characteristics. According to Oyez, “the law defines discrimination not only as refusing to provide goods or services, but also publishing any communication that says or implies that an individual’s patronage is unwelcome because of a protected characteristic.”
Back in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado baker could refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple on religious grounds in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case. However, POLITICO noted that the ruling “did not broadly affect the Colorado anti-discrimination law or determine when businesses are entitled to an exemption from that law under the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of speech,” and that the 303 Creative LLC case was expected to.
This week’s 6 to 3 vote was split along ideological lines and the majority opinion was written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
“Even before the state sought to enforce CADA against her, Smith and her company challenged the law in federal court, alleging numerous constitutional violations,” said Oyez. “The district court granted summary judgment for the state, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed.”
Also this week, the Supreme Court ruled that a postal worker could have Sundays off on religious grounds in the Groff v. DeJoy case.
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