The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Colorado could not compel website designer Lorie Smith to make wedding websites for same-sex couples if she offers the service to opposite-sex couples.
Smith claimed one day after filing her lawsuit that a man requested she design a website for his same-sex wedding. The man cited in court filings says he’s been married to a woman for years and made no such request. His denial was first reported by The New Republic, who first contacted him last week.
The Supreme Court didn’t reference the claimed request in their opinion. A lower court found Smith to have standing independent of the claimed request.
But, as The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld wrote, “the development has raised new scrutiny of Smith and her conservative lawyers’ years-long effort to claw back LGBTQ+ protections, as they had cited the request on multiple occasions in the lower courts while asserting that she had authority to challenge Colorado’s law.”
In an interview with The Hill, the man, who agreed to be identified as Stewart without his last name, said, “I’m just really disappointed in the ongoing and sustained attacks on the LGBTQ community in this country, and I’m also disappointed and concerned about the lack of rigor that’s been shown by the lawyers in this case.”
“There’s some evidence there which is easily refutable and easily proven to be incorrect and has been in the case filings for the last five plus years,” he continued. “So it’s concerning that that could make it all the way to the Supreme Court without anybody checking.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization that represented Smith, said Smith doesn’t do background checks on incoming requests. “Whether Lorie received a legitimate request or whether someone lied to her is irrelevant,” the group said. “No one should have to wait to be punished by the government to challenge an unjust law.”
Read more from Schonfeld’s report here
