{"id":1763227,"date":"2022-12-05T10:17:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763227"},"modified":"2022-12-05T10:18:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:18:01","slug":"scotus-starts-case-with-enormous-religious-freedom-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-starts-case-with-enormous-religious-freedom-implications\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Starts Case With Enormous Religious Freedom Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fscotus-starts-case-with-enormous-religious-freedom-implications%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1763227&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Supreme Court is starting to consider a case with far-reaching implications for religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the court will begin considering <em>303 Creative v. Elenis<\/em>, which revolves around Colorado designer Lorie Smith, a committed Christian who designs websites and is challenging the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by asserting that it violates her First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. Smith is fighting for the right to create messages consistent with her religious beliefs and publish those beliefs on her website.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 FREE SPEECH before <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SCOTUS?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SCOTUS<\/a> in 2 DAYS \ud83d\udea8 Colorado has tried to compel graphic artist Lorie Smith&#8217;s speech, forcing her to promote messages she doesn&#8217;t believe. This is a clear violation of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FirstAmendment?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FirstAmendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nicholastomaino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@nicholastomaino<\/a> \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DdLrnYAmpw\">https:\/\/t.co\/DdLrnYAmpw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ADFLegal\/status\/1599098390415015936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 3, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lorie Smith is an artist. Art is speech.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FirstAmendment?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FirstAmendment<\/a> forbids government from censoring or coercing speech.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/303Creative?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#303Creative<\/a> we will ask <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SCOTUS?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SCOTUS<\/a> to affirm every American\u2019s right to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CreateFreely?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CreateFreely<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3Mx47r1dor\">pic.twitter.com\/3Mx47r1dor<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kristen Waggoner (@KWaggonerADF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KWaggonerADF\/status\/1599207123556016129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 4, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision to take up Smith\u2019s case, combined with the court\u2019s recent rulings expanding religious liberties, suggests that Smith may be on the verge of securing the broader victory that Phillips sought four years ago,\u201d Amy Howe of ScotusBlog <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2022\/12\/colorado-web-designers-first-amendment-supreme-court-lgbtq-anti-discrimination-laws\/\">wrote<\/a>, referencing the famous 2018 <em>Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission<\/em> case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission\u2019s ruling against Christian baker, Jack Phillips, had been issued without utilizing religious neutrality, but the court did not deal with the larger issues of anti-discrimination laws, free exercise of religion, and freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>Before Smith\u2019s case was appealed to the Supreme Court \u2014\u00a0which is only considering the free speech question, not on the free exercise of religion issue \u2014 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit\u00a0ruled for Colorado, using what the plaintiff\u2019s brief argued was a \u201cnovel, artists-are-monopolists theory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 10th District\u2019s Chief Judge, Timothy Tymkovich, responded in a <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/303-creative-llc-v-elenis-3\">blistering dissent<\/a>, writing, \u201cThe majority concludes not only that Colorado has a compelling interest in forcing Ms. Smith to speak a government-approved message against her religious beliefs, but also that its public-accommodation law is the least restrictive means of accomplishing this goal. No case has ever gone so far. \u2026 It seems we have moved from \u2018live and let live\u2019 to \u2018you can\u2019t say that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Constitution is a shield against CADA\u2019s discriminatory treatment of Ms. Smith\u2019s sincerely held religious beliefs, \u201cTymkovich wrote. \u201cThe Supreme Court\u2019s repeated, emphatic disapprobation of compelled expressive speech leaves little room for other conclusions. So it is all the more troubling when, in a case where the parties have stipulated that Ms. Smith\u2019s work is expressive speech \u2014 \u2018<em>[the] custom wedding websites will be expressive in nature<\/em>\u2019 \u2014 the majority decides that its compulsion is constitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMs. Smith would like to post on her website an honest, straightforward message about why she will only make wedding websites for weddings involving one man and one woman,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cEndorsing same-sex marriage is a message Ms. Smith will not create for any client. But CADA prevents her from informing clients of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority tells us not to worry because Colorado has good reasons to violate Ms. Smith\u2019s conscience for the greater good. After all, she is only one person out of many. But this is misguided,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n<p>Then he pointed out the absurdity of the state\u2019s position, explaining, \u201cRather than embracing the idea that creative, expressive works are even worthier of First Amendment protection by virtue of their originality and intrinsic worth, the majority comes to the\u00a0<em>opposite<\/em>\u00a0conclusion. It holds that \u2018unique goods and services are where public accommodation laws are most necessary to ensuring equal access.\u2019 It premises this argument on the idea (novel to the First Amendment) of a \u201cmonopoly of one,\u201d characterizing the \u201cproduct at issue [as] not merely \u2018custom-made wedding websites,\u2019 but rather \u2018custom-made wedding websites of the same quality and nature as those\u00a0<em>made by [Ms. Smith]<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority then concludes that \u2018monopolies present unique anti-discrimination concerns,\u2019 justifying regulation of a market in which \u2018only [Ms. Smith] exist[s],\u2019\u201d Tymkovich continued, adding, \u201cBut this reductive reasoning leads to absurd results. By describing custom artists as creating a monopoly of one, the majority uses the very quality that gives the art value-its expressive and singular nature \u2014 to cheapen it. In essence, the majority holds that the more unique a product, the more aggressively the government may regulate access to it \u2014 and thus the less First Amendment protection it has. This is, in a word, unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court is starting to consider a case with far-reaching implications for religious freedom. On Monday, the court will begin considering 303 Creative v. Elenis, which revolves around Colorado designer Lorie Smith, a committed Christian who designs websites and is challenging the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by asserting that it violates her First Amendment rights &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1763230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1763227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}