Free Speech, Same-Sex Marriage, and Anti-Discrimination Laws

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

On Monday, December 5, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the 303 Creative v. Elenis case. The petitioner, Lorie Smith, is an artist and website designer in Colorado, who says creating wedding websites for same-sex couples against her personal beliefs would violate her First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and religions, because is would require her to create messages inconsistent with her religious beliefs, and bar her from posting those beliefs on her website. A Colorado public accommodations law states that businesses open to the public can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or state an intent to do so. Smith brought a lawsuit challenging the law. Colorado counters that the law does not require or bar any speech, and exempting Smith from the law would “upend antidiscrimination law—and other laws too.” Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law and Joshua Matz of Kaplan Hecker & Fink join host Jeffrey Rosen to recap the arguments and discuss the issues at stake. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution
0:07.0	Center and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:11.6	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness
0:17.6	and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:21.3	On December 5th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in
0:24.0	303 Creative versus Alainis. The petitioner is a website designer in Colorado who
0:29.8	says that creating wedding websites for same-sex couples would violate her religious beliefs.
0:35.4	A Colorado public accommodations law says that businesses can't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
0:41.2	To recap the arguments and explore the issues in the case, we have two
0:46.2	superb guests. Joshua Matts is a partner at Kaplan Hecker and Fink and co-author of
0:52.4	uncertain justice, the Roberts Court and the Constitution. Kaplan He
0:55.0	He He He He He He He Keplenheheckes Brief with Public Accommodation Law Scholars on behalf of the respondent.
1:00.0	Joshua, it's wonderful to welcome you back to We the People.
1:03.0	Thanks for having me, Jeff.
1:04.0	It's always a pleasure to join.
1:05.0	And Eugene Vallick is the Garried T Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law
1:09.0	at UCLA School of Law.
1:11.0	He's the author of The First Amendment and related statutes and
1:14.5	founder of the Vollic Conspiracy blog. He filed an amicus brief with a
1:18.9	Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute on behalf of the Petitioner.
1:22.8	Eugene, it's great to welcome you back to the show.
1:24.8	Always a great pleasure, thanks.
	...

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