#Alliance defending freedom adf series#
#Alliance defending freedom adf free#

In Colorado, like in many other states around the country, one reason you cannot discriminate against is sexual orientation.

#Alliance defending freedom adf free#

What she’s interested in is an exemption from anti-discrimination laws on behalf of her free speech and religious liberty - although the religious liberty part of it was put on hold by the Supreme Court, because it only invited her to hear her free speech claims.Īnd so the law in Colorado says that once you run a business and you’re open to the public, what the law calls public accommodation, then you have to serve everyone you cannot discriminate against groups. HK: So in this case, a lady named Lorie Smith owns a business, which he runs with a company called 303 Creative, which gives the name of the case. Elenis, including the Colorado law being challenged? First, would you lay out, briefly, the facts of this case, 303 Creative v. JS: So, to start we need to do just a couple of things. HK: Oh, thank you so much for inviting me. Hila joins me now to break down the case. She’s actually been sharing her views all over the place. She writes about the marketplace and the relationship between law and human emotions.Īnd she argues that this case is really about weaponizing the marketplace under the guise of free speech and religious freedom and that there’s been no limitation placed on Smith’s speech. She is the associate dean for research and a professor of law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. And part of what I think goes back to our Founders’ understanding of the reality of slavery and the 14th Amendment is that the marketplace is not the appropriate place for that because once we compromise access to the market, we are really cutting under this way of being in the world. Hila Keren: There’s no legal limit to the idea of free speech but there are places to carry free speech. But my guest today argues that it’s not about that at all.

Elenis, is on its face, at least according to the ADF and Smith, about free speech. JS: The case before the Supreme Court, 303 Creative LLC v. It’s always the message I’m being asked to promote… What I am asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on and to protect this fall is the right for all of us to be able to speak freely, whether your beliefs are the same as mine or different. For me, it’s never about the person that I’m working with. Lorie Smith: As a Christian artist I was really excited to step into the wedding industry and use my artistic talents, except there’s a Colorado law that prevents me from continuing with my work and forces me to violate my beliefs and speak messages that I don’t agree with… I love working with everyone.

#Alliance defending freedom adf series#

To make their case, the ADF and Smith have developed a series of slick videos with epic music and drone shots over Colorado landmarks. The ADF is representing Lorie Smith, a graphic designer from Colorado who claims the state is preventing her from developing wedding websites because of - wait for it! - an anti-discrimination law. And they’ve landed a big case at the Supreme Court. They’re a Christian-right advocacy group, working across the country to create legislation and case law to deny services to LGBTQ people and criminalize consensual sexual activity between adults.

There’s this organization called the Alliance Defending Freedom – or ADF for short. Welcome to Dissent - an Intercepted miniseries about the Supreme Court.

Jordan Smith: I’m Jordan Smith, a senior reporter for The Intercept. Unlike Masterpiece Cakeshop, the 303 Creative case has no injured parties it is a preemptive attempt to allow businesses to practice unfettered discrimination. Elenis, a challenge to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act brought by Lorie Smith, a website designer seeking to refuse wedding design services to same-sex couples. In the fourth episode of Dissent, Jordan Smith and law professor Hila Keren discuss 303 Creative LLC v. Now the court is considering another case out of Colorado that could expand the right to discriminate under the guise of free speech. In a 7-2 decision, the court found that the state had violated the cake maker’s religious objections. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case involving a cake shop owner who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

Back in 2017, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v.