I'm not sure I can take all this winning. I'm just not sure I can handle it. I may need a break.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that the First Amendment bars Colorado from "forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees."
Oh gee Colorado! I am so sorry this happened to you! How terribly sad!
In this case, the state was attempting to force web designer Lorie Smith to create wedding websites for gay and lesbian customers. Smith allowed that she was more than happy to serve these customers in any other context, but that creating websites for homosexual "weddings" would violate her sincerely held religious beliefs.
(You'll note that Colorado has had a slew of these cases designed to destroy religious liberty and freedom of conscience, going back to Jack Phillips the baker, who is still fighting lawsuits even AFTER winning a SCOTUS case.)
The state argued that business owners like Smith "have to serve everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, religion, race or gender." The Supreme Court's response: Not in this way they don't.
Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation's answer is tolerance, not coercion. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment.
No they can't! That's how it is. And though you can never predict how these things will go down the line, one can assume that this ruling will apply to many other forms of creative commerce, including, yes, cake baking.
