The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Building on Masterpiece Cakeshop
The case of Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop was perhaps a watershed moment for religious liberty and free speech in the face of oppression from the Rainbow Mafia. Phillips is a Christian, and his biblical beliefs meant he declined to create custom wedding cakes (i.e., engage in supportive speech) for same-sex marriages. Given that modern leftists hate such individual liberty, they sued, but he won. They never give up, though, and other folks in similar situations are still facing the threat of compelled speech.
Lorie Smith is one such creator. She runs a web designing company based in Colorado, where Phillips lives and works. And she explains why her case takes the baton from Phillips and applies to even more of us:
In asking [the Supreme Court] to defend my freedoms in a brief my attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom filed last week, I’m not just asking for me. I’m asking on behalf of many others — even those who disagree with me.
And when it comes to my beliefs about marriage, some people do disagree with me. I am a Christian, and I believe that marriage is a very special institution designed by God to be the union of one man and one woman.
Many hold a different view. They live their lives and operate their businesses accordingly. They choose to speak and express their beliefs. I’m simply asking for the same freedom.
I’m a graphic artist and Web designer, running a one-woman design studio, 303 Creative. And while I love to create designs and websites promoting causes close to my heart — such as supporting veterans, children with special needs, overseas missions, and animal shelters — I’ve dreamed of designing wedding websites and graphics since I was a little girl, and I would truly love to expand my portfolio into this space to celebrate weddings. I want to work with couples to tell a story through my custom graphics and website designs about how they met and how beautiful and complementary God’s design for marriage between a man and a woman is.
Trouble is, officials in my home state say I’m not welcome in this space. According to a Colorado law, if I create websites promoting marriage consistent with my faith, I must create websites promoting views of marriage I disagree with. This law has already been used that way against other religious business owners. Colorado has used this same law to punish cake artist Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who’s now been in litigation for a decade defending himself from this law.
Instead of complying with this unconstitutional law, Smith has simply avoided doing wedding websites at all. She has chosen silence rather than compelled speech, though she’s also fighting back in a way that has been fraught with peril.
It’s been a long, difficult road. I’ve received death threats and unspeakably hateful messages just because I have a different belief about marriage than others. Hackers seeking to cause me harm attempt to gain access to my website on an almost daily basis. And my family and clients have been harassed and threatened.
But I have pressed on because I’m not just standing for my own freedom to speak freely. Just as I don’t want to be forced to say something contrary to my core convictions, I don’t believe anyone else should be, either.
She concludes:
That’s why I took this journey all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And that’s why I’m immensely grateful it agreed to hear it … for your sake, as well as mine.