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Store owners cannot be jailed for refusing to make wedding invitations for same-sex couples: Arizona Supreme Court
[FOXBUSINESS] The city of Phoenix cannot compel an art studio owned by two Christians to design wedding invitations for same-sex couples, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 4-3 decision.Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, who run Brush & Nib Studio, potentially faced $2,500 in fines and six months in jail for violating Phoenix's 2013 ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on "sexual orientation, gender identity or expression." "Duka and Koski’s beliefs about same-sex marriage may seem old-fashioned, or even offensive to some," wrote Justice Andrew Gould in the opinion of the court. "But the guarantees of free speech and freedom of religion are not only for those who are deemed sufficiently enlightened, advanced, or progressive." "To conclude, we hold that the Ordinance, as applied to Plaintiffs’ custom wedding invitations, and the creation of those invitations, unconstitutionally compels speech in violation of the Arizona Constitution’s free speech clause," Gould wrote. Related: Same-sex couples: 2019-05-18 ‘Men in skirts' events in Taiwan go viral as government legalises same-sex marriage Same-sex couples: 2018-07-23 100,000 protest in Tel Aviv over anti-LGBT discrimination Same-sex couples: 2018-03-18 California travel ban over out-of-state LGBT policies keeps team out of NASA rocketry event in Alabama Posted by: Fred 2019-09-18 |
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