SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — State courts did not act with animosity toward religion when they ruled that a florist broke the state’s anti-discrimination laws by refusing on religious grounds to provide flowers for the wedding of a gay couple, the Washington Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday. The court reaffirmed its 2017 opinion in the case brought against florist Barronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers business in the southcentral city of Richland. She had appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the state level last year for a determination on whether decisions in the case had violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of religious neutrality. Neither the Washington Supreme Court nor the Benton County Superior Court acted with religious animosity when they ruled the florist violated Washington state’s discrimination law, the state supreme court’s decision said. Stutzman’s refusal to provide flowers to the same-sex couple was discrimination against sexual orientation, the decision reiterated. "We are confident that the courts resolved this dispute with tolerance, and we therefore find no reason to change our original judgment," Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who sued Stutzman and her business in 2013, […]
