(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The Supreme Court has decided to take up a case challenging the state of Colorado’s LGBT mandates, Alliance Defending Freedom reported.
Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, a small business in the Denver area, has appealed to the high court following the 10th Circuit’s decision ruling in favor of the Colorado law.
In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the 10th Circuit court held that Smith must serve “all people regardless of sexual orientation,” under Colorado’s pro-LGBT Anti-Discrimination Act.
Further, they demanded that she engage in speech that violates her conscience. The 10th Circuit decided that the state may force individuals to create things that violate their conscience.
In other words, Smith can be forced to make pro-LGBT art, or any other art that her potential customers demand of her, so long as those causes are supported by the state.
The dissenting 10th Circuit judge called the Anti-Discrimination Act an “Orwellian diktat.”
ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner, Smith’s attorney, said that the Colorado law constitutes a major overreach of state power in violation of the First Amendment.
“The government doesn’t have the power to silence or compel creative expression under the threat of punishment,” she said.
“It’s shocking that the 10th Circuit would permit Colorado to punish artists whose speech isn’t in line with state-approved ideology.”
Waggoner also suggested that the law has been turned into a political cudgel to enforce leftist pieties onto all Americans.
In her opinion, the law is a clear challenge to the Constitution itself.
“Colorado has weaponized its law to silence speech it disagrees with, to compel speech it approves of, and to punish anyone who dares to dissent,” she said.
“Colorado’s law—and others like it—are a clear and present danger to every American’s constitutionally protected freedoms and the very existence of a diverse and free nation.”