Minnesotans React To Supreme Court Ruling Over LGBTQ Rights: "It's Legal, Codified Discrimination"

By Jonah Kaplan, CBS Minnesota

July 3, 2023

MINNEAPOLIS -- Another day, another seismic decision from the Supreme Court of the United States.

In a ruling released Friday, the 6-3 conservative majority affirmed the rights of a Christian website and graphic designer in Colorado to tell her clients she won't build wedding websites for same-sex couples. In the case known as 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the court stated the First Amendment supersedes a Colorado public accommodations law.

"The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. "If [Smith] wishes to speak, she must either speak as the State demands or face sanctions for expressing her own beliefs, sanctions that may include compulsory participation in 'remedial ... training,' filing periodic compliance reports as officials deem necessary, and paying monetary fines," he said, referencing the penalties for violating Colorado's public accommodations law. "Under our precedents, that 'is enough,' more than enough, to represent an impermissible abridgment of the First Amendment's right to speak freely."

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