Supporters for both Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers, and gay plaintiffs Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed made their voices heard after Tuesday’s court hearing. By The Richland floral shop owner at the center of a 6-year fight over religious freedom is once again asking the country’s highest court to take her case. Barronelle Stutzman and her attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom announced on Wednesday that they are continuing their fight with the filing of a 471-page petition of review to the U.S. Supreme Court. Stutzman, 74, owns Arlene’s Flowers on Lee Boulevard. She was sued in 2013 after refusing to design arrangements for the same-sex wedding of a longtime customer. The couple, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, and, separately, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson say Stutzman violated the state’s anti-discrimination law and the Consumer Protection Act by declining to provide services based on sexual orientation. The two lawsuits have worked their way up together from Benton County Superior Court to the state Supreme Court, and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court, which vacated Washington state’s previous ruling and remanded it back to the lower court. This past June, Washington’s Supreme Court justices stuck with their 2017 unanimous opinion […]
News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.