Web designer Lorie Smith, plaintiff in a Supreme Court case who objects to same-sex marriage, poses for a portrait at her office in Littleton, Colorado, U.S., November 28, 2022.
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday appeared ready to rule that a Christian web designer has a right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages in a case the liberal justices said could empower certain businesses to discriminate based on constitutional free speech protections.
The justices heard feisty arguments in Denver-area business owner Lorie Smith's appeal seeking an exemption from a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and other factors. Lower courts ruled in Colorado's favour.
The conservative justices indicated support for Smith's view that businesses offering creative services like web design are protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee against government abridgment of free speech from being forced to express messages through their work that they oppose. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Smith, an evangelical Christian whose web design business is called 303 Creative, has said she believes marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples. She preemptively sued Colorado's civil rights commission and other state officials in 2016 because she feared she would be punished for refusing to serve gay weddings under Colorado's public accommodations law.
Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act bars businesses open to the public from denying goods or services to people because of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and certain other characteristics. The liberal justices offered various scenarios aimed at showing how a ruling embracing Smith's arguments could enable businesses claiming artistic rights to freely discriminate, not only against LGBT people but on the basis of race, sex, disabilities and other factors.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas questioned how public accommodations laws can regulate speech, noting that Smith's business is "not a hotel, this is not a restaurant, this is not a riverboat or a train."
Public accommodations laws exist in many states, banning discrimination in areas such as housing, hotels, retail businesses, restaurants and educational institutions.
The case gives the Supreme Court's conservatives another chance to exert their power following major recent rulings curbing abortion rights and expanding gun and religious rights. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that a ruling backing Smith could allow a professional photographer to exclude Black children from a nostalgic Christmas photo with Santa Claus styled after the 1940s - a time of racial segregation in parts of America - because "they're trying to capture the feelings of a certain era."
Kristen Waggoner, the lawyer representing Smith, doubted such a scenario would merit a free speech exemption, but said, "There are difficult lines to draw and that may be an edge case."
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito asked whether a "Black Santa" could be required under Colorado's law to have his picture taken with a child wearing the outfit of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group. Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson rejected that example, saying such outfits are "not protected characteristics under public accommodation laws."
