The Supreme Court Friday ruled in favor of a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections.
The 6-3 decision was penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The decision -- rooted in free speech grounds -- will pierce state public accommodation laws for those businesses who sell so-called "expressive" goods. It is the latest victory for religious conservatives at the high court and will alarm critics who fear the current court is setting its sights on overturning a 2015 decision that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide.
Gorsuch wrote that "the First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands." He said Colorado sought to "deny that promise."
"All manner of speech -- from 'pictures, films, paintings, drawings, and engravings,' to 'oral utterance and the printed word' -- qualify for the First Amendment's protections; no less can hold true when it comes to speech like Ms. Smith's conveyed over the Internet," Gorsuch said.
In dissent, Sotomayor said the decision will undermine the government's compelling interest in ensuring that all Americans have equal access to the public marketplace.
"Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class," she wrote.
"Specifically, the Court holds that the First Amendment exempts a website design company from a state law that prohibits the company from denying wedding websites to same-sex couples if the company chooses to sell those websites to the public," she wrote.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
