In a case that pitted so-called "religious freedom" against Washington State’s civil rights protections, the state’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Christians don't have the special right to deny services to people they don't approve of. Rachel La Corte writes:
Barronelle Stutzman, a florist in Richland, Washington, had been fined by a lower court for denying service to a gay couple in 2013. Stutzman said she was exercising her First Amendment rights, and her lawyers immediately said they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Thursday's decision.
She had previously sold the couple flowers and knew they were gay. However, Stutzman told them that she couldn't provide flowers for their wedding because same-sex marriage was incompatible with her Christian beliefs.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the couple sued her, saying she broke state anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws, and the lower court agreed. The state's nine high court justices upheld that verdict.
Stutzman, a great-grandmother, has been trotted around the country by Christian conservatives as an innocent victim of religious bigotry. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you open a business, you don't get to pick and choose whom you will serve. Whoever walks through the door with money in hand is automatically a legitimate customer in the eyes of the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has been quite clear on that.
If the Supreme Court agrees to hear this case, it will be a test of whether the highest court in the land decides to reverse course on basic civil rights protections and privilege "religious freedom" over the freedoms of every other American citizen.