The 6-3 decision in favor of Lorie Smith will likely have a broad impact. It may make it easier for businesses to discriminate LGBTQ customers and other groups, where they assume that these groups have the same right to express themselves as Smith does as a designer.
Colorado argued its anti-discrimination laws did not violate Smith’s rights under the first amendment because it didn’t prevent her from refusing to provide service to same-sex couple, but it still allowed her to voice her opinions against same-sex wedding. The state also stated that the case was hypothetical and that no couples of same sex had asked Smith to design a website.
The decision came days after news organizations found that a part of the case foundation seemed to be false. Smith’s lawsuit cited a request for assistance from a homosexual man to design a wedding website for a man named Mike. The man whose name and telephone number matched the ones listed on the request, however, told news outlets he never contacted Smith and had been married for 15 years to a woman.
In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred to the Supreme Court decision as being ‘profoundly incorrect’. Sotomayor said that the Supreme Court granted a business, open to the general public, a constitutional right not to serve people who belong to a protected group. Our Constitution does not contain a right to refuse to serve a group that is disfavored.