Washington’s court system did not act with religious animus when it ruled that a Richland florist broke the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding, a unanimous Washington Supreme Court said on Thursday. The state Supreme Court reaffirmed a ruling it made in 2017 , after the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to Washington to determine whether it had been handled with “religious neutrality,” as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in favor of a Colorado bakery that refused to provide a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. But it was a narrow ruling , justified on the grounds that the Colorado agency that sanctioned the bakery had “some elements of a clear and impermissible hostility” toward the sincere religious beliefs of the bakery owner. The state Supreme Court said that was not the case here in Washington. “We are confident that the courts resolved this dispute with tolerance,” Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote in the unanimous opinion . “The state of Washington bars discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation. Discrimination based on same-sex marriage constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” […]
