LGBTQ community weakened
Supreme Court upsets discrimination law
06/30/2023, 11:46 p.m
In the US, a graphic designer refuses to provide services for a same-sex couple’s wedding. She rejects such connections and invokes her freedom of expression. The Supreme Court agrees with her – and causes sharp criticism in her own ranks. The reason is the fear of far-reaching consequences.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that certain businesses can refuse services for same-sex marriages. The six conservative judges justified this with the constitutional right to freedom of expression. A law to the contrary could otherwise be abused by the government to compel someone to give a statement that does not reflect their opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch said in the reasoning. The three liberal judges rejected the verdict.
“Today, for the first time in its history, the court grants a public company a constitutional right to refuse its services to members of a protected group,” wrote left-liberal constitutional judge Sonia Sotomayor. It was a “license to discriminate.” This would make gays and lesbians “second-class citizens”.
The decision stems from the case of a devout Christian from Colorado whose business makes custom websites. She had challenged a state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, citing her belief that marriage could only be between a woman and a man. A lower court had rejected her request for an exemption because of her religion.
She welcomed the Supreme Court ruling: “Colorado cannot force me or anyone else to say anything we don’t believe in.” The Supreme Court justified the decision not with the freedom of belief, but with freedom of expression, which enjoys a higher status in the United States than in many other countries under the First Amendment.
Judge Sotomayor warned that this could mean that other groups are now also affected. “For example, a website designer could refuse to create a wedding website for a multiracial couple… A stationery store could refuse to sell a birth announcement for a disabled couple because they don’t want them to have a child,” she wrote. President Joe Biden also said he feared the ruling could encourage discrimination.