"The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the case of a web designer who contends that she has a First Amendment right to refuse to provide online service for same-sex weddings.
The Supreme Court said Tuesday it would decide whether applying public accommodations law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.
The high court declined to address other issues regarding the web designer’s religious rights to refuse service under the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
The web designer, Lorie Smith, is represented by the conservative Christian nonprofit group Alliance Defending Freedom. She plans to expand her services to offer wedding website design services that promote her understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman, according to her cert petition.
She would also like to post an online statement explaining that she can only post messages that are consistent with her religious convictions.
Alliance Defending Freedom had also represented Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding on religious grounds. The Supreme Court had ruled narrowly for Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, holding in June 2018 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had violated his rights by showing hostility to his religious explanation.
Smith’s case is 303 Creative v. Elenis.
This article was originally posted in the ABA Journal.
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