The Arizona Supreme Court says Phoenix cannot force owners of a business to create wedding invitations for same-sex couples.
The 4-3 decision, issued today, is nationally historic, as the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide on any anti-LGBT case. In the most notable instance, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the country’s highest court did not directly address whether civil rights lawsuits based on sexual identity could be an exception for religious-based businesses.
“The enduring strength of the First Amendment is that it allows people to speak their minds and express their beliefs without government interference. But here, the City effectively cuts off Planitiffs’ right to express their beliefs about same-sex marriage by telling them what they can and cannot say,” Justice Andrew Gould wrote for the majority.
The anti-discrimination ordinance was challenged by Brush & Nib owners Breanna Koski and Joanna Duka, who do not want to prepare their custom wedding invitations and other products for same-sex nuptials.
Duka and Koski are devout Christians who believe their work is inextricably related to their religious beliefs. They strongly believe a marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman, and argue they cannot separate their beliefs from their work.
Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy organization, which filed its own legal brief urging the justices to uphold the Phoenix ordinance, had its own take on the ruling, even limited as it might be to wedding invitations.
“It is cracking the door open for businesses to use free speech rights to pick and choose among customers,” said Jennifer Pizer of Monday’s ruling. And that precedent, she said, is troubling.
“This particular context involved an anti-gay and LGBT religious view,” Pizer explained. “But this analysis (by the court) could just as well be used as a reason to turn away people of other faiths or other groups of people whose lives or relationships don’t conform with business owners’ religious views.” Read more via Arizona Capitol Times