The new date is Dec 5, 2022.
Conservative justices on the Supreme Court suggested Monday they are willing to let a Colorado web designer refuse to make websites for same-sex weddings, a potentially wide-reaching ruling that could give business owners broad license to deny services to the LGBTQ community.
Protesters are outside of the Supreme Court in Washington as they hear arguments.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a case in which a wedding website designer is arguing that Colorado's anti- discrimination law is unconstitutional because it would force her to provide services for same-sex couples.
Colorado has a law that allows designers to speak out against same-sex marriage at their business and in their work, but no same-sex couples have asked her to build websites for them yet.
The conservative justices wanted to know if a ruling in the state's favor would lead to people being forced to write press releases for the Church of Scientology or pose with a child in a Ku Klux Klan.
Justice Samuel Alito criticized the state of Colorado's case as only making a "sliver of an argument", as he pointed to an amicus brief by law professors and conservative groups that argued against Colorado.
Justice Neil Gorsuch emphasized that Smith was willing to work with LGBTQ customers as long as it wasn't for a wedding, and had a testy exchange with Olson disagreeing with his arguments. Work on an idea.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the case was different from other public accommodations cases because the designer said this is not a hotel.
The case will be decided by the court before it ends its term in June. The University of Pennsylvania Law School professor argued to the court that the ruling could cause a slippery slope of people claiming they are exempt from anti- discrimination policies. Wolff said that if a commercial website designer can claim a special exemption from anti- discrimination laws because it sells products that involve creative ability, any business that sells goods or services involving skill with images or words could argue for a similar exemption.
Liberal justices argued on Monday that the case could lead to other groups being discriminated against because of their race or disability. If Smith was refusing to make a website for a couple with disabilities, how would the case be different if photographers were allowed to discriminate against Black children with Santa? There is a line. "Do you know what I asked?" The case of a stationary company objecting to their products being used on same-sex weddings was similar to how a wedding website expresses speech to begin with, suggesting that such websites are simply to "announce the wedding" without expressing opinions on it.
She went to the Supreme Court after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her. The 6-3 conservative Supreme Court, which has often ruled in favor of religious liberty in other cases, has come under more scrutiny for how it will handle the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer community. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage that other rulings could be challenged as well. The Senate passed a bill to protect same-sex marriages because of that. The Alliance Defending Freedom is the same group that challenged Colorado's anti- discrimination policies in the Masterpiece cakeshop case. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker, but it didn't address the issue of whether business owners could discriminate against same-sex couples.
There are big stakes in the new case.
The same-sex marriage fight is continuing at the Supreme Court.
The scope of state anti- discrimination laws will be tested in the First Amendment challenge.
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