WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday regarding a Denver-area website designer subject to a Colorado state law that censors and coerces the speech of creative professionals whose religious beliefs do not conform to state accepted beliefs.
Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief to the High Court in
303 Creative v. Elenis in support of the free speech of Colorado native Lorie
Smith. Senior Counsel for Governmental Affairs Jonathan Alexandre will speak at
the rally in front of the Supreme Court steps at 9:30 a.m. before the oral
arguments.
Smith creates unique and beautiful websites for her clients
and started her business in 2012 to exercise creative freedom. Smith serves
everyone but cannot use her design skills and creativity to express messages
that violate her deeply held religious beliefs. However, under Colorado’s
Anti-Discrimination Act, Smith could be punished simply for offering to create
websites only celebrating weddings consistent with her beliefs that marriage is
between one man and one woman.
In addition, the law acts as a gag order that prevents
Smith from expressing on her website the reasons why she only creates messages
celebrating certain ideas. Ironically, Colorado’s public-accommodation law
allows secular artists but not religious ones like Smith to make “message-based
refusals.”
Smith filed a lawsuit in 2016 in federal court. Nearly
three years later, a judge issued a final ruling allowing Colorado officials to
force Smith to design and publish websites promoting messages that conflict
with her religious beliefs. In July 2021, the Court of Appeals ruled the state
can force an artist to create expressive content, even if that speech violates
their faith.
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