October 2, 2026
WASHINGTON — In a win for Bible-believing Christians, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled Friday that a graphic artist has a constitutional right to refuse to work with same-sex couples.
Justices ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith, a Colorado resident who argued that a Colorado law that makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation violated her First Amendment right to free speech.
“Those six justices understand that the rights of true Bible-believing Christians should be protected and that they should never be punished for living out their faith,” said Suzanne Guy, a Georgia advocate for religious freedom and a member of Woodstock Baptist Church in metro Atlanta.
Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said the Supreme Court was right to reaffirm that the government cannot compel people to say things they do not believe.
“Disagreement isn’t discrimination, and the government can’t mislabel speech as discrimination to censor it,” she said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s six conservative justices that the First Amendment “envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.”
The decision is the latest in a series of wins for religious freedom in recent years. Justices have sided with a football coach who prayed on the field at his public high school after games and with a baker who objected to designing a cake for a same-sex wedding.
“People must be free to speak, create, and operate in ways that are consistent with their deepest-held beliefs,” said Brent Leatherwood, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in a tweet Friday morning.
“Government cannot coerce speech, compel certain creations, or force conduct that goes against your deepest convictions,” he said, “even when those beliefs are deemed culturally unpopular.”
Smith, who owns a Colorado design business called 303 Creative, does not currently create wedding websites because of the state law that would require her to build websites celebrating same-sex marriages.
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