On Monday, December 5, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the 303 Creative v. Elenis case. The petitioner, Lorie Smith, is an artist and website designer in Colorado, who says creating wedding websites for same-sex couples against her personal beliefs would violate her First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and religions, because is would require her to create messages inconsistent with her religious beliefs, and bar her from posting those beliefs on her website. A Colorado public accommodations law states that businesses open to the public can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or state an intent to do so. Smith brought a lawsuit challenging the law. Colorado counters that the law does not require or bar any speech, and exempting Smith from the law would “upend antidiscrimination law—and other laws too.” Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law and Joshua Matz of Kaplan Hecker & Fink join host Jeffrey Rosen to recap the arguments and discuss the issues at stake.
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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell and engineered by the National Constitution Center's A/V team. Research was provided by Kelsang Dolma, Sam Desai and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Joshua Matz is a partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. His practice includes complex commercial disputes, constitutional and civil rights law, and Supreme Court and appellate litigation. With Larry Tribe, Matz is the co-author of Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution and To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.
Eugene Volokh is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA Law School. He is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes and Academic Legal Writing, as well as over 90 law review articles. He is the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Listen to or read the transcript of oral arguments in 303 Creative v. Elenis
- Read the amicus brief Joshua Matz filed with public accommodation law scholars, on behalf of the respondents
- Read the amicus brief Eugene Volokh filed with the Cato Institute and the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, on behalf of the petitioner
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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