Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Washington, is expected to appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court may soon get another chance to consider whether businesses can claim religious motivations for refusing service to LGBT people. The case likely will come from the Washington state Supreme Court, which ruled last week that a business cannot claim a religious exemption from a state law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation. Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that has been pushing for such exemptions, said immediately that it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, Washington v. Arlene’s Flowers Inc., has already been to the U.S. Supreme Court once. In June 2018, the court vacated the Washington Supreme Court’s initial ruling on the issue, also against the religious exemption. But the high court said last year that the state court should reconsider its decision "in light of" the Supreme Court’s decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado. In Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Supreme Court did not say a baker had a right to refuse to sell a cake to a same-sex couple by citing his religious beliefs. It said the Colorado Civil […]
