Supreme Court LGBTQ 'Fake Case' Could be Reversed—Lawyer
Supreme Court's recent decision to rule in favor of a Christian designer who didn't want to make wedding websites for a gay couple in 303 Creative v.
Elenis, allegations that the case hinged on a fake claim are gaining strength.Lawyer Neal Katyal, who as acting solicitor general between 2010 and 2011 argued more than 50 cases in front of the Supreme Court, said that if the case turned out to be based on a fake claim, as he said it would appear, the court's decision could be officially stricken.On Friday, the court's conservative majority delivered a blow to LGBTQ rights nationwide, ruling 6 to 3 in favor of Colorado graphic artist Lorie Smith, who had refused to design a website for a same-sex couple's wedding despite state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender, and other characteristics.The Supreme Court voted to defend Smith's free speech rights under the Constitution's First Amendment, opening the way for artists to refuse work that, as the court put it, goes against their beliefs.But recent reporting by The New Republic (TNR) revealed that the name of the plaintiff in the case—allegedly the gay man who had asked Smith to design a wedding website for himself and his husband-to-be, Stewart—had never made a similar request.In fact, Stewart—whose name, address, and contact information could be found in court filings—was married to a woman at the time the request to Smith was allegedly made, and he had never heard about the case, as he told TNR.Stewart's theory is that someone—potentially Smith and her attorneys—used his information to invent the case of a gay couple asking a Christian designer for a wedding website.Talking about this revelation on MSNBC this weekend, Katyal said that the.
