US Supreme Court restricts anti-discrimination laws favouring LGBTQ+

US Supreme Court :The US Supreme Court on Friday ruled that businesses can refuse to provide services to same-sex weddings.

In a landmark judgement, the top court gave a majority judgment that allows businesses “a licence to discriminate.” Six judges voted for the judgment while two dissented.

Background

Denver-based web designer Lorie Smith argued that her Christian beliefs stopped her from serving same-sex marriages. She also argued that her religious beliefs militated against a Colorado law that requires all businesses to serve their customers without any discrimination.

Smith told the Supreme Court that the Colorado law went against the First Amendment which allowed all US citizens to speak freely.

The Denver web designer approached the top court after a lower court rejected her appeal to be exempted from the Colorado law.

“US is a rich and complex place”

Judge Neil Gorsuch, whom many consider conservative, wrote in his judgment that the Colorado law would violate the First Amendment.

He wrote, "Were the rule otherwise, the better the artist, the finer the writer, the more unique his talent, the more easily his voice could be conscripted to disseminate the government's preferred messages. That would not respect the First Amendment; more nearly, it would spell its demise."

Judge Gorsuch elaborated, “The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place…”

“License to discriminate”

However, Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented and wrote, "By issuing this new license to discriminate in a case brought by a company that seeks to deny same-sex couples the full and equal enjoyment of its services, the immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status. In this way, the decision itself inflicts a kind of stigmatic harm, on top of any harm caused by denials of service."

President Joe Biden also opposed the majority ruling saying that he fears this could invite more discrimination to gays and transgenders.

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