The free speech argument could also represent a potential challenge to the Equality Act, proposed federal legislation that would protect LGBTQ people in many areas. The ADF also argues that part of the state law limiting statements that certain customers are “unwelcome, objectionable or not accepted, desired, or solicited” interferes with Carpenter’s free speech, because it doesn’t allow her to express her views about same-sex marriage on her website. The complaint says Carpenter “is already willing to work with clients no matter who they are, including those in the LGBT community” but that the state goes too far by requiring that she “celebrate” same-sex marriage in images on her website. District Court for the Western District of New York arguing that the state’s nondiscrimination law unconstitutionally prohibits wedding photographer Emilee Carpenter “from adopting an editorial policy consistent with her beliefs about marriage.” That case is ongoing.Įarlier this month, the ADF filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Last year, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice backed a wedding photographer in Kentucky who sued the city of Louisville over its anti-discrimination ordinance that prohibited her from refusing to serve same-sex couples. In 2019, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against a florist who refused to provide services for a gay couple’s wedding. Since then, religious denial-of-service cases have continued. The court ruled on a technicality - avoiding the issue of whether a business owner, due to their religious beliefs, could refuse to serve a same-sex couple. In 2018, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. “We have seen a significant rise and a very troubling rise in these cases, and it's not an accident.”įor years, same-sex couples have been turned away by business owners who don’t want to provide wedding-related services, citing their religious or moral beliefs.
“They want to get legal rulings that there are religious and free speech rights to violate these laws,” said Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director at Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ legal organization. Legal advocates say situations like the Mudds’ are on the rise as conservative religious organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, have been building campaigns and lawsuits for years to challenge civil rights laws. There’s no federal law that explicitly allows people, based on their personal beliefs, to turn away same-sex couples or other classes of people, but there’s also no federal or Kentucky state law that protects LGBTQ people from discrimination in public accommodations, such as businesses.