Colorado to pay over $1.5 million to settle lawsuit with Christian website designer
November 21, 2024
The State of Colorado will pay more than $1.5 million in a settlement with a Christian business owner who prevailed in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Christian Post reports that Lorie Smith, who owns the website company 303 Creative, could not be forced to make websites that go against her sincerely held religious beliefs.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Alliance Defending Freedom CEO and President Kristen Waggoner said that state officials had agreed to the settlement which includes paying over $1.5 million in fees.
Waggoner said that the government cannot, “force Americans to say things they don’t believe, and Colorado officials have paid and will continue to pay a high price when they violate this foundational freedom,” adding, “Billions of people around the world believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that men and women are biologically distinct. No government has the right to silence individuals for expressing these ideas or to punish those who decline to express different views.”
Smith had filed a pre-enforcement challenge in 2016 to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act which she believed would force her to violate her belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled against Smith in 2021, with a two judge majority saying, “Colorado has a compelling interest in protecting both the dignity interests of members of marginalized groups and their material interests in accessing the commercial marketplace.”
According to the Christian Post, Smith appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2022 and the high court ruled 6-3 in her favor in June 2023.
In that opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “Under Colorado’s logic, the government may compel anyone who speaks for pay on a given topic to accept all commissions on that same topic—no matter the underlying message—if the topic somehow implicates a customer’s statutorily protected trait.”
Gorsuch added that, “the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong.”
Photo: top, Credit: The Christian Post/Nicole Alcindor