Tweet reddit Upvote Downvote Photo image from Shutterstock. A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a challenge to Minnesota’s anti-bias law by videographers who say they can’t be required to make same-sex wedding videos because it would violate their religious beliefs. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Carl and Angel Larsen, owners of Telescope Media Group, could pursue claims that the Minnesota law violated their rights to free exercise of religion and free speech. Law.com , Courthouse News Service and Law360 have coverage. “Because the First Amendment allows the Larsens to choose when to speak and what to say, we reverse the dismissal of two of their claims,” the appeals court ruled in an opinion by Judge David Stras, an appointee of President Donald Trump. The opinion follows the Supreme Court’s June 2018 decision Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission ,which found that Colorado had violated the free exercise rights of a Christian baker by showing hostility to his explained religious reasons for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Masterpiece Cakeshop did not address the broader question of whether whether the baker’s religious beliefs could trump neutral laws that apply […]
