Fresh victory for Colorado web designer Lorie Smith who won Supreme Court case after refusing to work on same-sex weddings

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Fresh victory for Colorado web designer Lorie Smith who won Supreme Court case after refusing to work on same-sex weddings

The state of Colorado is set to pay more than $1.5 million in legal fees to web designer Lorie Smith who won a Supreme Court case after she refused to set up a page for a same-sex marriage.  

Last year the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote in favor of Smith that the right to free speech allows some businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, is an evangelical Christian who said she believes marriage can only exist between a man and a woman.

She sued Colorado’s civil rights commission and officials in 2016 because she said she feared being punished for refusing to serve gay weddings.

Now a state board has approved to pay $1.5 million in legal fees – just under the nearly $2 million that Smith had originally sought after her free speech win.

Fresh victory for Colorado web designer Lorie Smith who won Supreme Court case after refusing to work on same-sex weddings

Colorado is set to pay more than $1.5 million in legal fees to web designer Lorie Smith (pictured)

Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Bryan Neihart said it was common for the prevailing party in a civil rights case to ask for and receive legal fees after winning in court.

‘Our clients Lorie Smith and her design studio, 303 Creative, prevailed at the US Supreme Court and achieved a landmark victory — a victory that helps to protect all Americans’ freedom of speech from government censorship and coercion,’ Neihart said. 

In Smith’s bid for fees, Alliance Defending Freedom said its $2 million request would reimburse them for 2,174.4 hours of work on the litigation. The requested amount was a 36% reduction from the 3,374.9 billed hours they devoted to the case, the group said. 

Smith and lawyers for Colorado in a court filing said they planned to file their finalized settlement notice to the court by October 16.

The Supreme Court ruling overturned a lower court’s decision that the Denver-area business owner was not allowed an exemption from a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. 

‘The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy,’ wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority.

‘In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.’

Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, is an evangelical Christian who said she feared being punished for refusing to serve gay weddings

Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, is an evangelical Christian who said she feared being punished for refusing to serve gay weddings

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote in favor of Smith that the right to free speech allows some businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote in favor of Smith that the right to free speech allows some businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings

Smith insisted she did not want to discriminate against anyone but simply objects to not being able to express her Christian beliefs.

And she argued that her websites counted as art and were protected by her constitutional right to free speech.

In his majority opinion, Gorsuch agreed. He said that the First Amendment prohibited Colorado from ‘forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees.’

President Joe Biden said at the time the ruling was disappointing.

‘I’m deeply concerned that the decision could invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans,’ he said.

‘More broadly, today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women.’

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