Sometimes the student becomes the master. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is a perfect example. His majority opinion in 303 Creative v. Elenis, issued on the last day of the court’s term this year, fills in the gaps in decisions regarding same-sex marriage written by his former boss, Justice Anthony Kennedy.
In writing for the 6-3 majority, Gorsuch explained why Lorie Smith, an evangelical Christian website designer from Denver with a traditional view of marriage, should not be compelled to create a wedding website for a same-sex ceremony.
The state of Colorado, he wrote, was using its Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) to try to compel Smith to endorse same-sex marriages. Such “compelled speech,” he explained, is inconsistent with the Constitution. And “when a state public accommodations law and the Constitution collide, there can be no question which must prevail.”
Many Christians will be pleased by Gorsuch’s unequivocal statement. The Trump-appointed justice has been viewed by some with suspicion since 2020, when he infamously authored the court’s majority opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County. His opinion radically expanded Title VII’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity, a decision guaranteed to divide Americans who take different views on this sensitive topic. He noted that the objecting employers did not raise any defenses based on the First Amendment’s free exercise guarantee with the court and added, “We are also deeply concerned with preserving the promise of the free exercise of religion enshrined in our Constitution; that guarantee lies at the heart of
