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Supreme Court Hears Case Pitting Religious Freedom Against LGBTQ+ Protections

HeadlineDec 06, 2022

Here in the United States, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a case brought by a website designer from Colorado who’s seeking to deny services to LGBTQ people. During two-and-a-half hours of debate, the court’s conservative majority appeared to side with the plaintiff, who said her religious beliefs ought to outweigh Colorado’s public accommodations law, which bans businesses from discriminating against people based on their gender and sexual orientation. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who led the defense, spoke to reporters outside the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Phil Weiser: “We are very concerned that if our side loses in this case, the court would open up an exemption that would make possible all sorts of professions — photographers, people who make cakes, others who write books — to say, ’I’m not going to sell to someone based on who they are.’ The court has never recognized that exception. And to do so would threaten the core of our civil rights laws.”

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