US Supreme Court Takes Up Clash Between Religion and LGBT Rights
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday took up a major new legal fight pitting religious beliefs against LGBT rights, agreeing to hear an evangelical Christian web designer's free speech claim that she cannot be forced under a Colorado anti-discrimination law to produce websites for same-sex marriages.
The justices agreed to hear Denver-area business owner Lorie Smith's appeal of a lower court's ruling rejecting her bid for an exemption from a Colorado law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and certain other factors. The case follows the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling in favor of a Christian Denver-area baker who refused on religious grounds to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
Smith's case gives the justices an opportunity to answer a question that has been raised in other disputes including the baker case but never definitively resolved: can people refuse service to customers in violation of public accommodation laws based on the idea that fulfilling a creative act such as designing a website or baking a cake is a form of free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
"The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that anti-discrimination laws, like Colorado's, apply to all businesses selling goods and services. Companies cannot turn away LGBT customers just because of who they are," said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat.
Colorado's anti-discrimination law bars anyone from refusing "goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations" based among other things on sexual orientation, age, race, gender and religion. Colorado is among 21 U.S. states that have measures explicitly barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations.
Story by Reuters, posted on VOAnews.com
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