The Supreme Court of the United States on Friday ruled in favor of a website creator who refuses to produce websites for gay marriages, authorizing discrimination in the commercial sphere for the first time.
Companies whose services have a creative value, can invoke their freedom of expression not to provide a service that goes against their values, judged the high institution by a majority of six judges out of nine.
The Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees free speech, “designs the United States as a rich and complex place, where people are free to think and speak what they want, not what the government their request,” Magistrate Neil Gorsuch wrote on their behalf.
“Colorado is trying to renege on that promise,” he adds.
Since 2008, this state has prohibited traders from practicing discrimination based on sexual orientation, under penalty of a fine of up to $500.
This legislation had already been challenged by a Christian pastry chef who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
The Supreme Court had agreed with him in 2018 but on technical grounds, without enacting major principles.
A website creator, Lorie Smith had returned to the charge, filing a complaint against the Colorado law which, according to her, forces her to produce “a message” contrary to her Christian convictions.
She won her case on Friday, the Court considering that her activity, even if it is commercial, falls within the freedom of expression.
“Determining what is an expressive activity protected by the First Amendment sometimes raises difficult questions, but this is not the case in this case”, writes Neil Gorsuch with the support of the five other conservative magistrates of the Court.
As the day before, when the high court put an end to the policies of positive discrimination at the university, the three progressive judges expressed their disagreement forcefully.
“Today the Court has, for the first time in its history, given a constitutional right to a business open to the public to refuse to serve” customers protected by anti-discrimination laws, lamented Judge Sonia Sotomayor on their behalf. .