(Video Credit: Fox News)
A Christian graphic designer is taking her case on being forced to create sites for same-sex weddings all the way to the Supreme Court, alleging that the “government should not censor or coerce speech.”
“Four years after Christian baker Jack Phillips won a partial victory at the Supreme Court for declining to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple, arguing that it violated his sincerely held religious beliefs, the high court will finally, this fall, it looks like take up the issue on whether or not public accommodation laws compel business owners to create works that violate their religious beliefs,” Fox News host Shannon Bream said at the opening of her segment.
“This is the case of a Colorado graphic designer Lori Smith who declined to design websites promoting same-sex weddings because she says that goes against her Christian faith. Lori Smith, founder of 303 Creative, and her attorney, Christine Wagner of the Alliance Defending Freedom join us now to discuss the case,” Bream announced.
Bream asked Smith if she feels the weight of the case finally making its way to the Supreme Court after years of fighting for her freedom of religion.
“It has been an incredible six-year journey,” Smith began. “I am so very grateful that I have this opportunity… very rare chance to go before the highest court in the land this fall to stand and protect not only my freedoms but the freedoms for all Americans. I’m looking forward to it.”
(Video Credit: Denver7 – The Denver Channel)
The Fox News host proceeded to read off the relevant statute concerning the case.
“Christine, why not have that kind of law? Why not say if you are out in the public realm as a business, you’ve got to serve anybody regardless of that criteria?” Bream asked the attorney.
“Well, that’s a great law and that’s actually what Lori does. Lori does serve everyone. She serves people from all walks of life including those who identify as LGBT. But as the lower court held and as Colorado has even agreed, Lori makes decisions about what messages to create based on what the message says, what’s being expressed, not the person who’s requesting it. And all artists should have that right,” Wagner argued.
Everyone should have the right to speak freely. And no one should fear being punished by the government for exercising this fundamental freedom.
— Kristen Waggoner (@KWaggonerADF) February 22, 2022
“But if the message is about a same-sex ceremony, that is necessarily going to involve a person from the LGBTQ+ community. There’s no two ways about that,” Bream pointed out.
“Well, but the same thing is true… should a Democratic speechwriter have to write for Donald Trump? Or should an LGBT graphic designer have to create a website that would express the Catholic church’s view of marriage? Or we could think about even now a pro-abortion photographer. Should she have to photograph and promote the March for Life rally? Free speech applies to everyone and you don’t lose your constitutional rights just because you become a paid artist,” the attorney posited.
Bream went on to cover the lower court ruling on the case.
Lori Smith responded to that ruling by stating, “I would say that I have served and will continue to serve people from various walks of life including those who identify as LGBT and it’s not right for the government to censor and coerce speech simply because it doesn’t agree with my deeply held religious beliefs. It’s not right. We should all be free to live and work in alignment with our deeply held beliefs whether they’re the same as mine or different. But to be able to do that without the government punishing some of us.”
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