Does a Colorado designer’s belief that marriage is between one man and one woman merit an exemption to state law barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people? On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the answer is yes: Requiring a conservative Christian business owner to create wedding websites for…
The Colorado website designer’s win is one of dozens of federal cases where religious beliefs and LGBTQ+ rights have clashed
Does a Colorado designer’s belief that marriage is between one man and one woman merit an exemption to state law barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people? On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the answer is yes: Requiring a conservative Christian business owner to create wedding websites for…
Happy 248th Birthday, America!
Happy 247th Birthday, America! To what extent are we a “Christian nation” with a “Christian government?” Can we truly celebrate religious diversity? I asked those questions in my March 9, 2020 open forum, over which the DN-R editorial staff placed the headline: “US Was Founded As A Secular Nation.” I…
Supreme Court’s record on religion-related cases is more complicated than it seems
Protesters are seen in front of the Supreme Court ahead of Friday’s rulings. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | July 3 (UPI) — Does a Colorado designer’s belief that marriage is between one man and one woman merit an exemption to state law barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people? On Friday, the…
Supreme Court revives Oregon wedding cake case for ‘further consideration’
A case in which the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that a bakery violated the state’s civil rights law by refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple has been returned to the Oregon Court of Appeals by the US Supreme Court. Wikimedia Commons/Senate Democrats The US Supreme…
U.S. Supreme Court rules Constitution’s Free Speech Clause protects website designer’s plans to refuse same-sex wedding services against state law barring discrimination
303 creative decision In a closely watched Free Speech case, 303 Creative v. Elenis , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment bars the state of Colorado from enforcing its nondiscrimination law against a website designer who wants to create custom wedding websites as part of her business…
US Supreme Court backs website designer who refused to serve same-sex couple
Web designer Lorie Smith, plaintiff in a Supreme Court case who objects to same-sex marriage, poses for a portrait at her office in Littleton, Colorado, U.S., November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/ The US Supreme Court ruled Friday that some private businesses can refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons,…
Unanimous Supreme Court Upholds Employee’s Right to Religious Accommodation
COMMENTARY BY the Supreme Court upheld the right of an employee to be granted a religious accommodation by his employer unless doing so would substantially affect the employer’s business. boonchai wedmakawand / Getty Images Key Takeaways In Groff v. DeJoy, the high court reiterated that employees must not be forced…
Supreme Court backs right to not make same-sex wedding websites
Major LGBT rights case could weaken anti-discrimination laws nationwide Protesters in December jockey for position before cameras in front of the Supreme Court during oral arguments in a case about a Colorado anti-discrimination law and same-sex wedding websites. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo) The Supreme Court sided Friday with…
Supreme Court says First Amendment entitles web designer to refuse to do gay weddings
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that the First Amendment bars Colorado from "forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees." Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said: "Ms. [Lori] Smith seeks to engage in protected First Amendment…
U.S. Supreme Court says Christian web designer can refuse to serve same-sex weddings
Conservative justices form 6-3 majority in case Web designer Lorie Smith poses for a portrait at her office in Littleton, Colo., in this photo taken Nov. 28, 2022. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of Smith in a dispute over protections for freedom of speech under the…
Supreme Court to rule on web designer with anti-gay marriage stance
Web designer Lorie Smith, plaintiff in a Supreme Court case who objects to same-sex marriage, poses for a portrait at her office in Littleton, Colorado, U.S., November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/ [1/3] June 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday is poised to rule on whether a Christian…
Decision Expected Friday in Christian Wedding Website Designer Case
Colorado-based website designer Lorie Smith, who runs her own studio called 303 Creative LLC, filed the lawsuit over a Colorado anti-discrimination law. The lawsuit argues that the Colorado law violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in several ways, which include the right to free speech, the right to…
Supreme Court Raises Bar in Religious Accommodation Test (2)
The US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2023. Christian postal worker protested denial of Sunday off Religious groups wanted Title VII ‘undue hardship’ to mirror ADA The US Supreme Court unanimously created a higher standard for employers to measure the burden a worker’s religious accommodation request would…
Unanimous Supreme Court Upholds Employee’s Right to Religious Accommodation
Sarah Parshall Perry is a senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of an employee to be granted a religious accommodation by…
Supreme Court Paves Way For More Religious Accommodations At Work With Postal Worker Ruling
Topline The Supreme Court opened the door to more employees being granted accommodations for their religion at work Thursday, throwing out a ruling against a former postal worker who wanted to take off Sundays for religious reasons and clarifying when workplaces can refuse to accommodate workers’ religion—though it didn’t overturn…
U.S. Supreme Court buoys religious employees who seek accommodations at work
The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo June 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday bolstered the ability of employees to obtain accommodations at work for their religious practices, reviving a lawsuit by an evangelical Christian former mail carrier…
Appeals Court says Michigan prisons must recognize Christian Identity religion, allow group prayer
Copy This Embed Code: Ad LANSING, Mich. — The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion Monday directing the Michigan prison system to officially identify Christian Identity as a religion. Copy This Embed Code: Ad Their opinion comes after two current inmates sued the Michigan Department of Corrections for…
Texas supreme court to hear case from sanctioned judge who refused same-sex weddings
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (Reuters) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear arguments on whether to revive a state judge’s lawsuit against a judicial ethics panel that sanctioned her in 2019 over her refusal to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Dianne Hensley, a…
COLUMN: The religion of the unreligious
Steve Fair On June 5, Oklahoma became the first state in the country to approve a religious charter school. The 3-2 vote will allow St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School’s application to receive Oklahoma tax dollars. Immediately after the vote, Dr. Robert Franklin, the board chairman, resigned. Franklin…
Opinion: The Supreme Court is making religion an all-purpose excuse for ignoring the law
First it was wedding cakes, and now it’s wedding websites. Conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage are testing the line between religious freedom and unlawful discrimination. Looking for a federal law to be declared unconstitutional? Religion may well be your best bet — and that’s true regardless of how “real” your…
Democrat-run Minnesota quietly agrees to stop enforcing ‘anti-religious’ law in win for Christian schools
Minnesota’s Department of Education agreed to halt enforcement of an anti-religious school law as part of a federal court injunction, which religious liberty advocates say is a win for Christian education. For two Christian colleges in Minnesota who were singled out by the law and sued the state, the Wednesday…
Does the Constitution Protect the Right to Discriminate?
Facebook Email Font Size: Civil rights attorney argues that recent Supreme Court religious liberty cases jeopardize antidiscrimination laws. The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1984 that the First Amendment “gives no one the right to insist that, in pursuit of their own interests, others must conform their conduct to his…
A new Florida law becomes an issue for Cambridge Christian’s pregame prayer fight
A new state law could help short-circuit a legal battle about whether the school was improperly barred from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2016 high-school football championship game. Attorneys are battling over whether a new state law could short-circuit a case about whether a Tampa Christian…
New law becomes issue in Tampa Christian school pregame prayer fight
Football team praying at Cambridge Christian School. TAMPA, Fla. – Attorneys are battling over whether a new state law could short-circuit a case about whether a Tampa Christian school was improperly prevented from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 high-school football championship game. The Florida High…