The Supreme Court has rules for designers who want to discriminate against gay clients

First Supreme Court ruling that the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act violates the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Expression and does not violate the First Amendment

The Court decided that civil rights laws forbid discrimination in the public marketplace. The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act would violate the constitutional right to free speech by forcing a company to provide services to people of all sexual orientations, according to a Christian website designer who challenged the law.

It’s not clear whether any specific couple will have to rework their wedding plans after this. As The New Republic reported yesterday, Smith filed suit after getting a request for services from a couple named “Stewart” and “Mike,” but the Stewart in question says he’s already married to a woman and never actually made the request. The case of the Masterpiece Cakeshop was just one example of the Supreme Court carving out protections for belief-based discrimination.

The court has now endorsed that argument, holding that the First Amendment exempts 303 Creative from Colorado’s requirement because the company offers “expressive” and “customized” services. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, this is the first time the court has granted “a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.” This free-speech exemption applies to civil rights laws across the country. It potentially allows a wide range of businesses to discriminate in the name of expression.

The new conservative supermajority reached out in an aggressively worded manner, agreeing to decide on a case in which nobody had yet filed a discrimination claim.

The court ruling against the state and web designer on Friday could have serious consequences for Colorado and other states that have laws that force businesses to serve everyone, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

I have two parents, one is a musician, the other is a professor. The three of us spent every summer of my early childhood at my grandparents’ house in rural New York, where my musician mom ran a music festival. One day she walked into a cafe and found a sign saying that homosexuals will burn in hell. The cafe was owned by the Twelve Tribes, who teach that gay people deserve to die. My mom was very scared after seeing the sign. My other mom was outraged. Who are they to say we can’t be here? she remembers thinking. It was very much a case of invasion. I remember feeling frightened. We never went back to that cafe.

A mock brief was written last autumn for my first assignment in law school, defending the Anti-Discrimination Act as if I were the attorney representing Colorado. I didn’t think the project brought up family memories, but I thought it might feel personal.