Today, the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear the latest First Amendment case pitting gay activism against the rights of Christian business owners.
Oral arguments will be presented in Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission v. Hands On Originals, a case revolving around Blaine Adamson’s Kentucky-based print shop, Hands On Originals, and his refusal to print shirts promoting a pro-gay rights message with which he disagreed.
The Kentucky Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after lower courts upheld Adamson’s First Amendment right to decline to engage in speech he disagrees with. Here’s the background.
A group called the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization asked Adamson to print shirts promoting the Lexington Pride Festival, an event they were hosting. Adamson declined to print the shirts, citing his religious beliefs, and instead offered to connect the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization to another printer who would have made them the shirts.
Unfortunately, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization filed a discrimination complaint with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, even though the organization eventually received the shirts for free from another company. In 2014, the commission ruled that Adamson must serve all customers and even print messages that conflict with his faith upon demand.
In February, the Kentucky Supreme Court received 13 friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Adamson’s First Amendment rights, including briefs from Gov. Matt Bevin and 10 states. Meanwhile, the court received only one brief in support of the commission.
Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a brief filed with the Kentucky Supreme Court last year:
In cases like this, it seems clear that these requests are often stunts, even if it’s sometimes unintentional, since so many businesses offer similar products nationwide.
Of course, there’s a counterargument that discrimination is never right, even if other organizations can accommodate a customer’s needs. However, in the cake-baking case Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Supreme Court already held that the government cannot compel a person to express a message that’s against his religious beliefs when it approaches him with anti-religious animus.
This logic should be extended to the Kentucky case. Adamson has a right to produce the materials he wants to and practice the faith he wants, just as the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization has the right to purchase the products they want. But there are more than enough companies willing to do this work without the need to compel Christians to do so against their will. Let’s just hope the Kentucky Supreme Court sees it that way too.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
