“The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” is how the Court’s website summarized the decision.

 

In its ruling on 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the court sided with the plaintiff, Lorie Smith, proprietor of the Colorado-based graphic design company 303 Creative, who declined to create a website for a same-sex couple on the basis that it “contradicts biblical truth” and “Ms. Smith’s belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.”

 

“The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his majority opinion. He was joined in voting to reverse the Colorado court’s earlier decision by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

 

“The unattractive lesson of the majority opinion is this: What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is yours. The lesson of the history of public accommodations laws is altogether different. It is that in a free and democratic society, there can be no social castes. And for that to be true, it must be true in the public market,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her 38-page dissent, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.