US Supreme Court rules designer can discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers
The US Supreme Court dealt a major blow to LGBTQ+ rights by ruling that a Colorado wedding website designer can refuse to create work for members of the community if it conflicts with religious beliefs.
The decision was reached by a six to three vote of the conservative supermajority and opens the door for businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ+ people based on their sexuality.
The dissent from the three liberal justices, which was written by Sonia Sotomayor and joined by Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, described the ruling as a “licence to discriminate” that is “profoundly wrong”. “Today is a sad day in American constitutional law and in the lives of LGBT people,” Sotomayor wrote, adding that it could “mark gays and lesbians for second-class status” in society. “In this way, the decision itself inflicts a kind of stigmatic harm…The opinion of the court is, quite literally, a notice that reads: ‘Some services may be denied to same-sex couples’,” she continued. READ MORE: US should “reconsider” same-sex marriages following Roe v.
Wade, says Supreme Court Justice The majority opinion, which was written by Donald Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch, said that the First Amendment prohibited Colorado from “forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees”.
