Here we have a religious belief competing with a persons right of free speech. How will the Supreme Court decide this case?
Please cite cases we have reviewed to discuss you decision.
Law and Human Rights – Essay II
Toni Smith is owner of WebDesign Inc, South Dakota company
The South Dakota Anti-Discrimination Act restricts a public accommodation’s ability to refuse to provide services based on a customer’s identity. Under SDADA’s “Accommodation Clause,” a public accommodation may not:
directly or indirectly . . . refuse . . . to an individual or a group, because of . . . sexual orientation . . . the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a place of public accommodation …
WebDesign Inc, is a for-profit, graphic and website design company; Ms. Smith is its founder and sole member-owner.
She is willing to work with all people regardless of sexual orientation. She is also generally willing to create graphics or websites for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (“LGBT”) customers. Ms. Smith sincerely believes, however, that same-sex marriage conflicts with God’s will.
WebDesign Inc., does not yet offer wedding-related services but intends to do so in the future.
Consistent with Ms. Smith’s religious beliefs, she intends to offer wedding websites that celebrate opposite-sex marriages but intends to refuse to create similar websites that celebrate same-sex marriages.
Her objection is based on the message of the specific website. She will not create a website celebrating same-sex marriage regardless of whether the customer is the same-sex couple themselves, a heterosexual friend of the couple, or even a disinterested wedding planner requesting a mock-up.
She also intends to publish a statement explaining her religious objections. Here is her proposed statement:
“These same religious convictions that motivate me also prevent me from creating websites promoting and celebrating ideas or messages that violate my beliefs. So, I will not be able to create websites for same-sex marriages or any other marriage that is not between one man and one woman. Doing that would compromise my Christian witness and tell a story about marriage that contradicts God’s true story of marriage –the very story He is calling me to promote.”
She has filed for approval of the statement above, but the SD Anti-Discrimination Council has determined this violates the Accommodation Clause and Substantive Due Process decisions by the US Supreme Court.
Question
Here we have a religious belief competing with a person’s right of free speech. How will the Supreme Court decide this case?
Please cite cases we have reviewed to discuss you decision.
More details;
” is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is an adaptation of the initialism ”, which began to replace the term gay in reference to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. When not inclusive
of transgender people, the shorter term LGB is still used instead of LGBT.
It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
History of the term
The first widely used term, homosexual, now a term used primarily in scientific contexts, has at times carried negative connotations in the United States. Gay became a popular term in the
1970s.
As lesbians forged more public identities, the phrase “gay and lesbian” became more common. but disbanded in 1970 following disputes over which goal should take precedence. As equality
was a priority for lesbian feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. Lesbian feminists eschewed gender role play that had been
pervasive in bars as well as the perceived chauvinism of gay men; many lesbian feminists refused to work with gay men, or take up their causes.
Lesbians who held the essentialist view, that they had been born homosexual and used the descriptor “lesbian” to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist opinions of lesbianfeminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights. Bisexual and transgender people also sought recognition as legitimate categories within the larger minority community.
After the elation of change following group action in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, some gays and lesbians became less accepting of
bisexual or transgender people. Critics said that transgender people were acting out stereotypes and bisexuals were simply gay men or lesbian women who were afraid to come out and be
honest about their identity.
From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal
respect. Although the LGBT community has seen much controversy regarding universal acceptance of different member groups, the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion.
In 2016, GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide states that LGBTQ is the preferred initialism, being more inclusive of younger members of the communities who embrace queer as a selfdescriptor. However, some people consider queer to be a derogatory term originating in hate speech and reject it, especially among older members of the community.
Variants
Many variants exist including variations that change the order of the letters, including ”. At least some of the components of sexuality, and also gender are stated to be on spectrums of
sexuality
Other common variants also exist, such as LGBTQIA, with the A standing for “asexual,” “aromantic,” or “agender,” and LGBTQIA+, where “he ‘+’ represents those who are part of the
community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity.”
Longer acronyms have prompted criticism for their length, sometimes being referred to as “alphabet soup”, and the implication that the acronym refers to a single community is also
controversial.
Although identical in meaning, LGBT may have a more feminist connotation than ‘ as it places the “L” first.
The order of the letters has not been standardized; in addition to the variations between the positions of the initial “L” or “G”, the mentioned, less common letters, if used, may appear in
almost any order.
Variant terms do not typically represent political differences within the community, but arise simply from the preferences of individuals and groups.
The terms pansexual, omnisexual, fluid and queer-identified are regarded as falling under the umbrella term bisexual.
Some use LGBT+ to mean “LGBT and related communities”. Other variants may have a “U” for “unsure”; a “C” for “curious”; another “T” for “transvestite”; a “TS”, or “2” for “two-spirit”
persons; or an “SA” for “straight allies”. The inclusion of straight allies in the LGBT acronym has proven controversial as many straight allies have been accused of using LGBT advocacy to
gain popularity and status in recent years, and various LGBT activists have criticised the heteronormative worldview of certain straight allies. Some may also add a “P” for “polyamorous”, an
“H” for “HIV-affected”, or an “O” for “other”. The initialism ‘ has seen use in India to encompass the hijra third gender identity and the related subculture.
Adding the term allies to the initialism has sparked controversy, with some seeing the inclusion of “ally” in place of “asexual” as a form of asexual erasure.