{"id":2370970,"date":"2024-11-19T17:43:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T22:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colorado-to-pay-1-5-million-for-stifling-web-designers-free-speech-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-11-19T17:44:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T22:44:36","slug":"colorado-to-pay-1-5-million-for-stifling-web-designers-free-speech-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colorado-to-pay-1-5-million-for-stifling-web-designers-free-speech-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado to pay $1.5 million for stifling web designer\u2019s free speech &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"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\">28<\/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%2Fcolorado-to-pay-1-5-million-for-stifling-web-designers-free-speech-washington-examiner%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=2370970&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>Colorado has agreed to pay over $1.5 million in attorney fees to graphic designer Lorie Smith, who successfully challenged the\u2062 state&#8217;s\u2064 antidiscrimination law at the\u200c Supreme Court. The case arose when \u2063Colorado attempted to compel Smith to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, which she asserted violated her First Amendment rights due to her religious beliefs. The \u2063Supreme Court ruled in \u200cfavor of Smith, concluding that the state&#8217;s actions infringed on her right to free expression. The settlement,\u2062 announced recently, also includes a\u2063 legal commitment for Colorado&#8217;s Civil \u2062Rights\u2062 Division to cease efforts to compel Smith&#8217;s\u2063 speech.\u2062 Smith, \u200drepresented by\u2063 the\u2062 Alliance Defending Freedom, expressed gratitude for the victory, emphasizing her right to create in alignment with her beliefs without fear of punishment. \u2064The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-rules-mail-ballots-public-but-lets-pa-hide-vote-records\/\" title=\"Court Rules Mail Ballots Public But Lets PA Hide Vote Records\">case highlights ongoing tensions<\/a> regarding religious liberty and LGBTQ rights, with dissenting justices cautioning against potential discrimination against protected classes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Colorado to pay $1.5 million for stifling web designer&rsquo;s free speech<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1884834\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/colorado\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Colorado<\/a> officials have agreed to pay over $1.5 million to cover attorney fees for graphic designer Lorie Smith, who successfully challenged the state&rsquo;s antidiscrimination law at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net\/files\/303CreativeNoticeOfSettlement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">settlement<\/a>, announced Tuesday, comes months after the high court ruled in&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/444987\/supreme-court-sides-with-web-designer-who-didnt-want-to-create-pro-lgbt-messages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"303 Creative LLC v. Elenis\">303 Creative LLC v. Elenis<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;that Colorado violated Smith&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/first-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">First Amendment<\/a> rights by attempting to compel her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples against her religious beliefs. Earlier this year, a federal district court issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/dm1l19z832j5m.cloudfront.net\/2024-06\/303-Creative-v-Elenis-2024-03-26-Amended-final-judgment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">final judgment<\/a> requiring state officials to cease efforts to compel Smith&rsquo;s speech, a resolution that brought an end to years of legal and personal hardship.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, right, accompanied by her lawyer, Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, second from left, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022, after her case was heard before the Supreme Court. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;After enduring Colorado&rsquo;s censorship for nearly seven years, I&rsquo;m incredibly grateful for the work of my attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to bring my case to victory,&rdquo; Smith said, referring to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-rules-against-christian-college-suing-biden-administration-over-trans-mandate\/\" title=\"Judge Rules Against Christian College Suing Biden Administration Over Trans Mandate\">religious liberty law firm<\/a> that represented her. &ldquo;As the Supreme Court said, I&rsquo;m free to create art consistent with my beliefs without fear of Colorado punishing me anymore.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the settlement, Colorado&rsquo;s Civil Rights Division agreed to pay the hefty legal costs of Smith&rsquo;s attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group specializing in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsom-california-agree-to-pay-more-churches-in-settlements-over-lockdown-discrimination\/\" title=\"Newsom, California Agree To Pay More Churches In Settlements Over Lockdown Discrimination\">religious liberty cases<\/a>. ADF President Kristen Waggoner described the payout as a necessary consequence of the state&rsquo;s actions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;For the past 12 years, Colorado has targeted people of faith and forced them to express messages that violate their conscience and that advance the government&rsquo;s preferred ideology,&rdquo; said Waggoner, adding that &ldquo;billions of people around the world&rdquo; believe marriage is the union between a man and a woman, and that &ldquo;First Amendment protections are non-negotiable.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers spent nearly a decade arguing in court that Colorado&rsquo;s enforcement of its public accommodations law against Smith constituted a form of compelled speech. After the justices agreed to consider the case on the merits, the Supreme Court&rsquo;s 6-3 decision in June last year affirmed her claim, holding that the state&rsquo;s actions infringed upon her constitutional right to free expression.<\/p>\n<p>Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3231037\/gorsuch-breyer-meet-common-ground-in-rare-joint-keynote-discussion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Neil Gorsuch<\/a>, the author of the <em>303 Creative <\/em>decision, wrote that through its public accommodation law, &ldquo;Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court&rsquo;s majority ruling was met with swift dissent by the three Democratic-appointed justices, including a dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor accusing the ruling of granting &ldquo;business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, Smith has argued her free speech case was never about rejecting clients based on their identity but about making sure her custom website business does not create designs or promote messages that do not conform to her religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is a win not just for me but for&nbsp;<em>all<\/em>&nbsp;Americans &mdash; for those who share my beliefs&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;for those who hold different views. I love people and work with everyone, including those who identify as LGBT,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement follows a contentious history of Colorado officials enforcing antidiscrimination measures against religious business owners. Smith&rsquo;s lawsuit drew comparisons to the earlier&nbsp;<em>Masterpiece Cakeshop<\/em>&nbsp;case, in which the Supreme Court sided with baker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jack-phillips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Jack Phillips<\/a>, who refused to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Critics have accused Colorado of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">selectively targeting religious individuals<\/a>, a claim bolstered by comments from state officials during litigation that suggested hostility toward faith-based beliefs. Smith&rsquo;s attorneys argued that these patterns highlighted the need for stronger protections against government overreach.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>contacted the Colorado Civil Rights Division for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1884834\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1884834\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado to pay $1.5M for infringing web designer&#8217;s speech rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2370971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/LORIE-SMITH-303.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6024,32311,33647,45338],"class_list":["post-2370970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-free-speech","tag-legal-settlement","tag-web-designer"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/LORIE-SMITH-303.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370970","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\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370974,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370970\/revisions\/2370974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2370971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}