In a blow to LGBT rights, the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Friday ruled that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain companies to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

The decision was qualified by dissident liberal judges as “license to discriminate”.

The judges ruled 6-3 on ideological grounds in favor of web designer Laurie Smith, who cited his Christian beliefs against the law Colorado is against discrimination. The judges overturned a lower court ruling that rejected Smith’s motion to waive Colorado’s anti-discrimination law. depending on sexual orientation and other factors.

Smith’s business, called 303 Creative, sells custom web designs, but she was against providing her services for same-sex weddings.

Conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch wrote in a ruling that Colorado’s law make Smith give a speech she doesn’t believe in, in violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

“If the rule were different, then the better the artist, the better the writer, the more unique his talent, the easier it would be to use his voice to spread the messages preferred by the government. It would not support the First Amendment; rather, it would mean their death,” wrote Gorsuch.

“The First Amendment sees America as a rich and complex place where all people are free to think and speak as they please, not as the government dictates,” Gorsuch added.

The three liberal judges in court disagreed.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “Today, for the first time in its history, the Court grants businesses open to the public a constitutional right refusal to serve members of a protected class“.

Sotomayor added: “Having released this new license to discriminate In a case brought by a company seeking to deprive same-sex couples of full and equal enjoyment of its services, the immediate symbolic effect of the decision is to give gays and lesbians second-class status. So the decision itself inflicts a sort of stigmatic damage in addition to any damage caused by the denial of service.

The court’s decision, which came on the last day of his term in office, which began in October, comes as Republican lawmakers are pushing for laws against the rights of transgender people and other LGBT people in many conservative states.

In this case, the right of LGBT people to seek goods and services from companies without discrimination is contrasted with the right to free speech, as Smith argued, of artists, as she calls herself, whose companies provide services to the public.

In recent years, judges have upheld LGBT rights in major cases, although the court has since moved to the right. A 2015 court decision legalized same-sex marriage across the country. By decree of 2020 found that federal law prohibiting discrimination in the workplace protects gay and transgender employees.

Smith, who lives in Littleton, a Denver suburb, is an evangelical Christian who said she believes marriage is only between a man and a woman. In 2016, she pre-sued the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and other state officials because she said that she was afraid of being punished for refusing to hold gay weddings in accordance with the Colorado Public Spaces Law.

Reuters