The US Supreme Court allows companies to discriminate against LGBTQI+ people

It’s a precedent-setting decision that could further restrict the rights of queer people in the United States.

This Friday, June 30, the conservative majority in the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Lorie Smith, the head of “303 Creative,” a Colorado-based website creation company. In 2018, the latter claimed to have the right under the First Amendment to the Constitution to refuse to offer its services to gay and lesbian couples. “ I want to create unique sites to celebrate the beauty of marriage between a man and a woman “he said last December from the steps of the Tribunal. But “Colorado is trying to force me to (…) promote ideas that are contrary to my faith.”

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The first amendment of the constitution at the center of the debate

Since 2008, this state in the center of the United States prohibits merchants from discriminating against their customers on the basis of their sexual orientation, under penalty of a fine. In reality, Lorie Smith has not been approached by a same-sex couple, nor prosecuted by Colorado authorities. It was she who sued state law preemptively. After losing in an appeals court, she took her case to the Supreme Court, where an initial hearing was held on December 5, 2022.

This Friday, by 6 votes to 3, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor by ruling that the First Amendment forbade the state of Colorado from forcing Lorie Smith to go against her religious values.

“A sad day in the life of LGBT people”

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative American Christian legal advocacy group known for its anti-LGBTQ stances, welcomed the decision. “The United States Supreme Court has rightly held that the government cannot force Americans to say things they do not believe”Kristin Wagoner, the association’s general counsel, said in a statement, quoted by The New York Times.

For her part, Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, said: Today is a sad day for US constitutional law and for the lives of LGBT people. The US Supreme Court holds that a particular type of business, while open to the public, has the constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class. The Court does so for the first time in its history.”. “The immediate and symbolic effect of this decision is to mark gays and lesbians with second-class status »she added.

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