Ananke Ruadh
Formerly known as Ananke Zaresh
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The Decision in 303 Creative Deals a Blow To Anti-Discrimination Laws
Supreme Court rules website designer can deny same-sex couples service
I am not surprised. But on the last day of June, to receive this kind of decision handed down from those who are slowly demonstrably stripping our rights is heart-rending.
Supreme Court rules website designer can deny same-sex couples service
Sotomayor’s 38-page dissent argued that the Constitution “contains no right to refuse service to a disfavored group.” Colorado’s public accommodations law, she contended, only bars business owners from discriminating against members of the public based on (among other things) their sexual orientation. It does not regulate or compel speech at all. If a business owner like Smith “offers [her] goods or services to the public,” Sotomayor suggested, she “remains free under state law to decide what messages to include or not to include.” But what Smith can’t do, Sotomayor stressed, is “offer wedding websites to the public yet refuse those same websites to gay and lesbian couples.”
Sotomayor lamented that Friday’s decision “declares that a particular kind of business, though open to the public, has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.” More broadly, she continued, “the immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status.”
I am not surprised. But on the last day of June, to receive this kind of decision handed down from those who are slowly demonstrably stripping our rights is heart-rending.