Lorie Smith is a business owner, who says she puts her Christian faith above financial profit. However, her efforts to manage both have put Smith in conflict with Colorado officials over the limits of workplace speech, an issue the Supreme Court will address in high-profile oral arguments on Monday. At issue is a private company’s refusal to create any website for a same-sex wedding, despite a state’s “public accommodation” law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Legal questions over compelled commercial speech, expressive content and societal tolerance will again place the nine-member bench squarely in the middle of a culture war debate – with competing claims involving religion and gay rights. Smith runs 303 Creative, a for-profit online graphic design firm, and seeks to expand her portfolio to include custom wedding celebration websites. However, in keeping with her religious tenets, she does not want to publish any such sites for gay or lesbian couples. Smith preemptively claims she would be prevented from posting a disclaimer on her own homepage about those views. “Nobody should be punished or compelled or silenced simply because their beliefs are different from the government,” Smith told Fox News Digital. However, supporters of […]
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