The State of Colorado has agreed to pay more than $1.5 million in legal fees to a web designer who refused to create a website for a same-sex couple.
The settlement follows the Supreme Court ruling last year that Smith and her company were not obligated to create websites for LGBTQ couples.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion, declared, “The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy. In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.”
“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. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment,” he affirmed.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed her disappointment with the 2023 ruling by saying, “There has been a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities. New forms of inclusion have been met with reactionary exclusion. This is heartbreaking.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Brian Neihart said following the settlement, “Our clients Lorie Smith and her design studio, 303 Creative, prevailed at the US Supreme Court and achieved a landmark victory — a victory that helps to protect all Americans’ freedom of speech from government censorship and coercion.”
ADF noted that its original $2 million request would reimburse the organization for more than two thousand hours on the case.
