Colorado to Pay $1.5M to Christian Graphic Design Artist After Violating Her Free Speech Rights
Colorado officials have agreed to pay more than $1.5 million in attorneys’ fees to a Christian graphic artist who won a historic U.S. Supreme Court case last year that granted First Amendment protections for people of faith who want to opt out of providing services that promote messages that violate their religious convictions.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit legal group, represented graphic designer Lorie Smith in her case, 303 Creative v. Elenis. The high court decided that Colorado violated Smith’s free speech rights when they tried to force her to design wedding websites for same-sex couples despite her beliefs.
“I decided to take a stand to challenge Colorado’s injustice,” Smith told CBN Digital. “I know that if I want speech and free speech for myself, then I need to also defend it for others, not just today, but for future generations.”
“After seven very long years, the highest court in the nation affirmed that the government can’t force anyone to say something they don’t believe, and, ultimately, that’s correct,” Smith explained.
For nearly a decade, the ADF has argued in court that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law violates the U.S. Constitution. The group says Colorado officials threatened and censored artists like Smith for years, filing complaints against them for expressing messages consistent with their religious beliefs.
The court ruled 6-3 last year in favor of Smith.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the decision that the First Amendment envisions a United States where people are “free to think and speak as they wish.”
“The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy,” Gorsuch wrote.
He added, “Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation’s answer is tolerance, not coercion. The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment.”
Earlier this year, a federal court issued a final judgment against the state to cease efforts to compel Smith to speak.
Now, Colorado’s Civil Rights Division has agreed to pay ADF more than $1.5 million in legal fees, a payout that ADF President Kristen Waggoner says is necessary.
“For the past 12 years, Colorado has targeted people of faith and forced them to express messages that violate their conscience and that advance the government’s preferred ideology,” said Waggoner.
The ADF president argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Smith and 303 Creative. She says First Amendment protections are “non-negotiable.”
“The government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe, and Colorado officials have paid and will continue to pay a high price when they violate this foundational freedom,” she said. “No government has the right to silence individuals for expressing these ideas or to punish those who decline to express different views.”
Waggoner continued, “Political and cultural winds shift, but the freedom to speak without fear of censorship is a God-given constitutionally guaranteed right, essential for a flourishing society and self-governing people.”
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