On June 30, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Colorado Christian website designer who refused to create a website promoting same-sex weddings.
In recent years, ADF has won 13 Supreme Court victories, including the Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case in 2018, which upheld the right of a Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips to uphold his religious beliefs when making custom wedding cakes.
Lawyers for Defendant Aubrey Elenis, director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division, told the Court they shouldn’t accept the case, arguing that Smith hadn’t proven “a credible threat of enforcement“ because ”the record contains no evidence that anyone has asked the Company to create a website for a same-sex wedding” in the first place.
On June 30, the majority of the justices disagreed in a 6–3 vote.
“Some have been supportive, but many more have been hate-filled and deeply unsettling,” she said. Other messages have “shown that there is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about the case.”
To those who have filled her inbox “with vile, hate-filled messages,” Smith suggests an effort to disagree civilly.
“That is the mark of a healthy and free society,” she says.
‘We’re Overjoyed’
Jonathan Scruggs, vice president of litigation strategies at ADF, says, “The Supreme Court got it right.”“It’s a great day for the First Amendment,” Scruggs told The Epoch Times in response to the ruling. “The government can’t force Americans to say something they don’t believe. The Court has affirmed this principle again and again and again in other contexts and just applied it here. We are overjoyed.”
The bottom line, Scruggs said, was the ruling will protect not just Smith but other people of other beliefs and faiths, and even those of no beliefs or faith.
“The government shouldn’t have the power to target people’s ideas and expression and exclude them from the marketplace.”
Asked if this ruling will have an impact on future cases regarding other forms of forced language and expression, like pronouns, Scruggs said, “Absolutely.”
“It goes right to that argument that the government can’t force someone to say something they don’t believe is true,” Scruggs proposed, adding that the opinion will. “have a strong impact” in protecting people in schools and in the workplace for being forced to use language that goes against their beliefs.
“It strikes down a lot of the arguments used in all of these cases, that the government can override your right to control what you say, and the Supreme Court just resoundingly rejected that argument,” Scruggs said.
“One of the remedies”
Scruggs confirmed to The Epoch Times that “one of the remedies” in Colorado’s legal arsenal, which can be used against those found guilty of violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws, is “you have to go through reeducation.”Scruggs noted that the Supreme Court mentions this possibility in its reference to the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.
“So that’s one of their remedies,” Scruggs said. “You have to sit there and have your beliefs ’re-educated.'”
Ultimately, Scruggs says, “Anti-discrimination laws and the First Amendment can co-exist.”
“You’re going to see a lot of commentary saying this opinion will hurt people or cause problems, and it’s just not true,” Scruggs suggested, adding that numerous states across the country have already adopted the arguments they presented all along in this case.
“All the Supreme Court is saying is you have to respect someone’s right to say or not to say something,” Scruggs explained. “It doesn’t affect the vast majority of how these laws apply in the vast majority of situations. What it puts a stop to is government officials picking and choosing and saying you have to express certain beliefs and affirm our ideology. That’s what this ruling prevents.”
Asked how Smith was feeling since the ruling, Scruggs said, “She feels overjoyed.”
“She’s so proud to be able to stand up not just for her rights but for the rights of all Americans because that’s what this case is about,” he said.