AFA Action celebrates Supreme Court victory for Lorie Smith and religious freedom

TUPELO, Miss. — AFA Action, the government affairs affiliate of the American Family Association, celebrates the monumental Supreme Court ruling in favor of Lorie Smith, a Colorado graphic designer who refused to create websites celebrating same-sex marriages and who endeavored to post a notice on her firm’s website that she does not design such webpages.

Senior Counsel for AFA Action’s Center for Judicial Renewal, Phillip Jauregui, hailed the court’s ruling as “a significant step in the right direction. We are returning to an honest reading of the Constitution. For two generations, our courts stole the People’s right to govern themselves by writing new words and rights into the Constitution. Thankfully, the prodigal court is on the way home by protecting the religious and civil liberties that are actually written in our Constitution. The Chief Architect of our Constitution, Justice Joseph Story, foresaw our present struggle when he warned, ‘There is not a truth to be gathered from history more certain, or more momentous, than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both. Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or last, bring in an establish political liberty.’”

In the case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Lorie Smith, once again asked the Supreme Court to balance the religious rights of the website designer against the homosexual couple’s right to equal treatment under the law. This is the same law that was challenged in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.

Smith, the owner of her own design studio in Colorado, 303 Creative, designs websites for a living. She wanted to expand her business to include designing wedding websites celebrating marriages, but since designing wedding websites celebrating same-sex marriages would violate Smith’s religious beliefs, she knew that her creations would be limited to sites celebrating marriages between a man and woman. While Smith has been willing to serve homosexual patrons in the creation of other types of websites, she is unwilling to create websites celebrating homosexual marriage. Smith decided to post a notice on her firm’s website letting future patrons know of her design limitations.

After learning that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law would prohibit her decision to not include same-sex marriages in her marriage website creation services, as well as her decision to post a statement notifying patrons to that effect, Smith sued Colorado in 2016 in federal court, seeking to block enforcement of the law. After the United States District Court for the District of Colorado ruled against Smith, she appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, where she also lost. She then appealed her case to the United States Supreme Court, which considered the question: “Whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”

Today, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Smith, upholding the importance of First Amendment freedoms.  This important ruling hinges on the characterization of Smith’s website as “speech” rather than “conduct.” Since making a website is a creative endeavor that requires Smith to convey a particular message, the Colorado law cannot be applied to compel her to create same-sex marriage websites because such a requirement would result in compelled speech, something the First Amendment has long prohibited. This is an important day for both religious liberty and freedom of speech. This is an important day for all who value religious liberty. AFA Action applauds the Supreme Court’s decision.

AFA Action’s Center for Judicial Renewal is strategically restoring the Judiciary to its proper role of deciding cases under the law rather than legislating from the bench. The dedicated team of researchers has thoroughly completed 10,000 hours of research on federal judicial prospects in 11 vital areas, including faith and worldview. Researched prospects include 8 out of 9 sitting Supreme Court Justices. The Center for Judicial Renewal has also researched 12 potential future Supreme Court prospects and of these prospects, 10 are sitting Federal Judges.

AFA Action is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to advancing biblical, family values in society and government by educating and influencing public policy. The mission of AFA Action is to inform and mobilize individuals to strengthen the biblical foundations of America by persuading individuals with the truth of the Gospel, challenging the lost to repent, promoting societal values that are consistent with Scripture, restraining evil and exposing the works of darkness, motivating people to take a stand on cultural and moral issues, and encouraging Christians to bear witness to the world the love of Jesus Christ. Find AFA Action Alerts here. 

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