Nadler, Scanlon Issue Joint Statement on 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis Supreme Court Decision
Today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in 303 Creative LLC v.
Elenis, effectively gutting state anti-discrimination protections for
the LGBTQ community. In this case, the Supreme Court’s conservative
supermajority sided with a website designer who argued that the First
Amendment’s Free Speech Clause allowed her to refuse to serve LGBTQ
customers seeking her wedding website design services, notwithstanding a
Colorado law that prohibits businesses that serve the public from
discriminating against persons based on their disability, race, creed,
color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression,
marital status, national origin, or ancestry.
In response, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler and
Constitution Subcommittee Ranking Member Mary Gay Scanlon released the
following statement:
“Today’s egregious Supreme Court decision weaponizes the First Amendment
against the LGBTQ community. Until today, the Court had never
recognized a constitutional right for a business open to the public to
refuse to serve members of a protected class. The Court’s current,
radical right-wing majority took the unprecedented step of interpreting
the Constitution to permit business owners who offer their services to
the general public to deny those services to some customers based on the
customers’ otherwise legally protected characteristics, like race, sex,
and national origin.
“This decision is a gut punch to the LGBTQ community that singles them
out as second-class citizens under the law. The decision will only make
it harder for people to navigate their everyday lives and subject LGBTQ
persons to the constant threat of discrimination and humiliation simply
because they sought to patronize a business, just like everyone else.
“For those who may think that today’s decision does not affect them –
think again. This decision not only erodes the rights of LGBTQ
Americans, but sets a dangerous precedent for undermining the rights of
all Americans to be free from discrimination based on otherwise legally
protected characteristics. It is yet another example of the
determination of the Court’s extreme right-wing majority to roll back
the personal freedom and individual liberties that most Americans have
rightly demanded and long embraced. We have no doubt that history will
ultimately judge 303 Creative to be among the Supreme Court’s most
notorious and wrongly decided cases, joining the ignominious likes
of Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Dobbs v. Jackson
Women’s Health Organization.”
