Lorie Smith disapproves of same-sex marriages on the basis of her religious beliefs. She is the owner and sole employee of 303 Creative LLC, a website design company which claims to serve everyone, regardless of background. This small Colorado company plans to offer design services for wedding websites, but only for opposite sex marriages. Ms. Smith asserts that she is willing to work for gay or lesbian customers to create graphics or websites. However, given her strongly held personal beliefs, she will refuse to offer her services to create marriage websites for same-sex couples. In defense of her beliefs, 303 Creative filed an action to block the application of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) to this new service on the basis of free speech and free exercise of Ms. Smith’s religious beliefs. While 303 Creative’s challenge failed in District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, it may find a more receptive hearing next month before the U.S. Supreme Court.
303 Creative risked an enforcement action under the CADA if it pursued the planned wedding website services. Anticipating a potential legal issue, the company commenced a pre-enforcement challenge to CADA in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. In shielding Ms. Smith’s personal beliefs, the company informed the District Court it planned to publish the following statement on its website:
[The] … religious convictions that motivate me also prevent me from creating websites promoting and celebrating ideas or messages that violate my beliefs. So, I will not be able to create websites for same-sex marriages or any other marriage that is not between one man and one woman. Doing that would compromise my Christian witness and tell a story about marriage that contradicts God’s true story of marriage — the very story He is calling me to promote. (the Proposed Statement)
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