On Tuesday, Colorado officials agreed to pay more than $1.5 million in legal fees to Christian resident Lorie Smith for violating her First Amendment right to religious freedom.
The court-approved settlement comes after seven years of legal attacks waged by left-wing activists against Smith and her design studio, 303 Creative. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported, despite being willing to work with any customer regardless of background, the Christian designer was targeted for declining to make “wedding websites celebrating same-sex couples because it would violate her constitutional right to exercise her Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Colorado officials attempted to force Smith to violate her Christian beliefs by citing a so-called “anti-discrimination” act, ignoring her First Amendment rights in the process.
The case ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in a 2022 decision, ruled (6-3) that the government cannot mandate Smith to betray her religious convictions. Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted 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.”
[READ: 8 Straight-Fire Quotes From Neil Gorsuch’s Defense Of Free Speech In 303 Creative]
Responding to Tuesday’s agreement, Smith thanked Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys for representing her in the case and celebrated the settlement as a victory for “all Americans.”
“As the Supreme Court said, I’m free to create art consistent with my beliefs without fear of Colorado punishing me anymore,” she said in a statement. “This is a win not just for me but for all Americans — for those who share my beliefs and for those who hold different views.”
Alliance Defending Freedom CEO and President Kristen Waggoner also celebrated Tuesday’s developments, reiterating that “Colorado officials have paid and will continue to pay a high price when they violate this foundational freedom.”
“First Amendment protections are non-negotiable,” Waggoner said. “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 is hardly the only Christian targeted by left-wing activists and Centennial State officials for her religious beliefs.
Since 2012, Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips has been the victim of never-ending lawfare for his Christian beliefs regarding marriage and sex. Unhinged LGBT radicals have filed numerous suits over the years seeking to weaponize the government to force Phillips to abandon core tenets of his faith.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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