Supreme Court to decide web designer's duty to work on same-sex wedding site

The case pits a Colorado web designer against a state law requiring services for same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a major challenge to anti-discrimination laws by considering whether a Colorado web designer has a free-speech right to refuse service to couples planning same-sex weddings.

The justices announced Tuesday that they will hear arguments in a case that pits website designer Lorie Smith against Colorado officials who contend that she is violating the state's public accommodation law by declining to provide custom website services for same-sex unions.

While Smith has said that her refusal is grounded in her Christian faith and she is backed by lawyers who press religious freedom cases, her case has been framed as a free-speech challenge rather than one based on her right to freely exercise her religion.

The case is the first of its kind to be taken up by the Supreme Court since former President Donald Trump's appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett gave conservatives a 6-3 majority on the court.

During the 2017-18 term, the high court considered a similar case out of Colorado involving baker Jack Phillips, who refused to design cakes for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The baker emerged victorious in that dispute, but the court ruled on narrow grounds involving hostility officials showed to Phillips at a hearing on the issue, so the broader question of how to balance religious freedom and free expression with the government's interest in enforcing anti-discrimination laws was never resolved.