The Christian business owner will receive over $1.5 million from Colorado as part of a settlement reached after winning her case at the United States Supreme Court.
Last year, the court ruled that Lorie Smith of 303 Creative could not be compelled by a state anti-discrimination law to create websites that conflict with her Christian beliefs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal nonprofit that assisted in representing Smith, announced on Tuesday that state officials had agreed to the settlement, which includes over $1.5 million in fees.
ADF CEO and President Kristen Waggoner stated that the government cannot “force Americans to say things they don’t believe, and Colorado officials have paid and will continue to pay a high price when they violate this foundational freedom.”
Waggoner further emphasized, “Billions of people around the world believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that men and women are biologically distinct. No government has the right to silence individuals for expressing these ideas or to punish those who decline to express different views.”
In 2016, Lorie Smith filed a pre-enforcement challenge against the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, as she was concerned it would force her to violate her belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled against her in July 2021, with a two-judge majority stating that “Colorado has a compelling interest in protecting both the dignity interests of members of marginalized groups and their material interests in accessing the commercial marketplace.”
Circuit Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, a Clinton appointee, wrote in the majority opinion that “when regulating commercial entities, like Appellants, public accommodations laws help ensure a free and open economy.” She further noted that while the commercial nature of Smith's business does not diminish her speech interest, it provides Colorado with a compelling state interest.
Smith then appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in December 2022. In June 2023, the court ruled 6-3 in her favor, with Justice Neil Gorsuch authoring the opinion.
Gorsuch expressed that “no public accommodations law is immune from the demands of the Constitution,” raising concerns about the state's attempt to control Smith's speech.
He wrote, “Under Colorado’s logic, the government may compel anyone who speaks for pay on a given topic to accept all commissions on that same topic—no matter the underlying message—if the topic somehow implicates a customer’s statutorily protected trait.” Gorsuch added that the government could even force a male website designer married to another man to design websites for organizations that advocate against same-sex marriage, stating that “the First Amendment tolerates none of that.”
Gorsuch further asserted that “commitment to speech for only some messages and some persons is no commitment at all” and affirmed that “the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong.”
