Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Anti-LGBTQ+ Businesses

On the last day of Pride Month, we've been given a stark reminder of how important voting is and the impact on our lives it can have. The conservative Supreme Court, packed with 3 Trump appointees, had just made some major decisions against LGBTQ+ people in America. Putting aside for a second the fact that the SCOTUS also struck down President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan (which would have saved Americans around $400 billion), the nation's highest court ruled in favor a web designer who doesn't want to make websites for gay people.

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules for web designer who refuses to work on same-sex weddings. https://t.co/6mHz3Q0vUa

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 30, 2023

In a 6-3 vote down ideological lines, the SCOTUS ruled that web designer Lori Smith can refuse to make wedding websites for LGBTQ+ couples. Citing the First Amendment, the court argued that enforcing equal protection under the law would force Smith to go against her right to freedom of speech. Trump-appointee Neil Gorsuch wrote for the 6 conservative Justices, stating that the First Amendment "envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands" and that "to force all manner of artists, speechwriters, and others whose services involve speech to speak what they do not believe on pain of penalty."

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Obama appointee Justice Sonia Sotomayor lead the dissent for the Court's three progressive Justices. Joining with Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sotomayor said that the court's ruling will pave the way for companies to discriminate against even more people. "Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class," she wrote. In other words, this horse is potentially now untamable from here; it's opened the floodgates for companies who don't like interracial couples, disabled people, or anyone else a company feels uncomfortable with.

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In addition to affecting LGBTQ+ people around the country, the ruling is also a loss for the States' Rights, specifically in this instance the state of Colorado. Colorado's public accommodations laws state that any business that offers services to the public must provide them to all customers, regardless of things like sexual orientation. The Court's ruling agreed with Smith's complaint that this violates her First Amendment rights.

The absolutely sick twist on all of this is that Smith has never even been asked to make a website for same-sex couples, people; she's just SO disgusted by Queer people that she took this to the Supreme Court in case she ever decides she wants to say no to any who might ask.

Buck up, folks. And get ready to fight for our rights, because it's more apparent than ever that our rights are under attack.

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