The Arizona Supreme Court will decide Monday how much leeway — if any — business owners have to refuse to serve certain customers based on religious beliefs. Officially the case is whether the city of Phoenix can enforce its ordinance which makes it illegal to discriminate in providing goods or services at places of public accommodation based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or disability. It also forbids advertisements or other notices which say that business from certain protection groups "would be unwelcome, objectionable, unacceptable, undesirable or not solicited." Challenging it are Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski who own Brush & Nib Studio, who prepare both custom and pre-printed wedding invitations, place cards and other materials. The pair, who say they are "devout Christians," want the justices to declare that they need not prepare those materials for same-sex couples who want to marry. The walls of the Historic Supreme Court Chamber. But the decision could have broader implications, setting the rules for when a business owner’s "sincerely held religious beliefs" provide immunity from similar ordinances that already exist in Tucson, Tempe and Flagstaff. And it would set the legal bar […]
