WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear an appeal from a Colorado web designer who objects to providing services for same-sex marriages, returning the justices to a battleground in the culture wars pitting claims of religious freedom against laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The court last considered the clash in 2018, when a similar dispute between a Colorado baker and a gay couple failed to yield a definitive ruling. The precise question the justices agreed to decide in the new case is "whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment." The court will hear the case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, No. 21-476, in its next term, which starts in October. It concerns Lorie Smith, who owns a website design company that says it serves gay customers but intends to limit its wedding-related services to celebrations of heterosexual unions. Smith has said she intends to post a message saying the company’s policy was a product of her religious convictions. A Colorado law forbids discrimination against gay people by businesses open to the public as well as statements announcing […]
