A Big Win for Pluralism and Tolerance

In the 303 Creative case, the justices finished the work they started five years ago in Masterpiece Cakeshop.

This morning, on the last day of the week, the month, and the Supreme Court term, the justices ruled 6-3 that states can’t force someone with an expressive vocation to speak any particular message. In this case it was a website for a same-sex wedding, but the ruling wasn’t limited to culture-war issues or religiously based objections.

Here’s the background. Graphic designer Lorie Smith sought to expand her business 303 Creative LLC to include wedding websites, so filed a First Amendment pre-enforcement challenge against Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) to ensure that she wouldn’t be forced to make websites for same-sex weddings. CADA prohibits all broadly defined “public accommodations” from denying “the full and equal enjoyment” of its goods and services to any customer based on, among other things, his sexual orientation. This was the law that ensnared Jack Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case that the Court decided five years ago, giving the baker a narrow victory while punting away the central First Amendment issue.