By John Riley on July 17, 2017 @JRileyRP
On the heels of the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the case of a Colorado baker who wanted to refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, a Washington State florist who didn’t want to deliver flowers to same-sex couples is now appealing her own case to the nation’s highest court.
Lawyers for Barronelle Stutzman, the proprietor of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Wash., have asked the Supreme Court to reverse a Washington State Supreme Court decision from February. They ruled that Stutzman violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination when she turned away Curt Freed and Robert Ingersoll because they are in a same-sex relationship.
Stutzman and her lawyers argue that she refused the couple service because of her Southern Baptist beliefs opposing same-sex marriage, reports the Tri-City Herald.
They also contend that arranging flowers is a form of artistic expression that should be protected under the First Amendment.
Similarly to baker Jim Phillips in the Colorado Masterpiece Cakeshop case, Stutzman hopes the high court will find that business owners, particularly those in wedding-related businesses, should be allowed to refuse to participate in or take actions seen as condoning behavior or relationships to which they have moral or religious objections.
In both Stutzman’s case and the Colorado case, courts found that Washington State and Colorado’s nondiscrimination laws did not violate the defendants’ First Amendment rights. The courts found that the state had a vested interest in ensuring that minorities, including members of the LGBTQ community, were not discriminated against.
“This case has never been about flowers for us,” Ingersoll said in a statement. “It’s about making sure that other people don’t have to go through what we went through. We hope that the Supreme Court sees what the lower courts in this case have already recognized: that business shouldn’t be able to turn someone away simply because of who they are or who they love.”
But Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Stutzman, issued a statement claiming that if the high court rules against their client, then the government will be able to “punish” others who express religious beliefs opposing homosexuality.
“Our nation has a long history of protecting the right to dissent, but simply because Barronelle disagrees with the state about marriage, the government and ACLU have put at risk everything she owns,” ADF Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner said in a statement. “This includes not only her business, but also her family’s savings, retirement funds, and home. Not only does her case and Jack Phillips’ case involve similar issues, but both Barronelle and Jack face burdensome penalties for simply exercising their right of free expression.”
By John Riley on July 19, 2022 @JRileyRP
Forty-seven Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill to codify the right of same-sex couples to marry into law.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), seeks to enshrine the freedom to marry within U.S. law, in response to the threat posed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the wake of the high court's shocking overturn of Roe v. Wade, and with it, longstanding legal precedent.
Titled the "Respect for Marriage Act," the bill would require states to recognize legally valid same-sex and interracial marriages, and prohibit discrimination "based on the sex, race, ethnicity or national origin of the individuals in the marriage."
By Joseph Reberkenny on July 19, 2022
A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers are backing a bill that would codify same-sex marriage into law.
The "Respect for Marriage Act," co-introduced by U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine), would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as an institution between one man and one woman, and negates any federal recognition of same-sex relationships.
A portion of DOMA was declared unconstitutional and voided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Windsor v. United States case in 2013, although the law is still technically in place, and unenforceable. However, a recent concurring opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a contentious case involving the right of a woman to obtain an abortion suggests that conservative jurists may revisit both the DOMA decision and the case the followed it, the 2015 Obergefell ruling, which legalized same-sex nuptials nationwide.
By John Riley on August 2, 2022 @JRileyRP
The U.S. Senate is likely to delay a vote on codifying same-sex nuptials into law until September, due to Democrats' decision to push forward with a $433 billion climate change, drug pricing, and tax bill that they have prioritized instead.
According to Reuters, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), one of only two LGBTQ senators in the chamber, said she now expects the bill to be brought up after the August recess, which stretches from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5.
In recent weeks, Baldwin has been whipping votes to try and find 10 or more Republicans to overcome a potential filibuster of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would allow same-sex marriages to be performed legally in all states and recognized as valid by both the state and federal governments.
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