Pete Buttigieg claims Colorado graphic designer ‘provoked’ Supreme Court case

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sued Lorie Smith, the Colorado graphic designer who was suing the state over the anti-discrimination law, of joining the company “for the purpose of provoking a case like this.”

In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Smith last week, saying she can refuse to design websites for same-sex marriages despite a Colorado law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“It is significant that there is no evidence that this web designer was ever approached by anyone requesting a website for a same-sex marriage,” Buttigieg, who is openly gay, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

“In fact, it seems that this web designer only got into the wedding business to provoke a case like this.”

The court said forcing her to create the websites would violate her right to free speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Buttigieg said the court ruled in favor of an “agenda to use every tool of the government, courts and legislators to push back these rights for people who are just trying to live their lives and just try to be treated equally by corporations and by government.’

“There’s something in common between this Supreme Court ruling and what we’re seeing happening in state legislatures across the country, which is kind of a solution looking for a problem, in other words, this kind of thing going to the court and send these kinds of things to legislators with the clear goal of stripping away the equality and the rights that have been so recently won in the LGBTQ+ community,” he told CNN.

Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, is an evangelical Christian who said she believes marriage can only exist between a man and a woman.

She sued the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and officials in 2016 because she feared being punished for refusing to serve same-sex marriages.

She insisted that she did not want to discriminate against anyone, but simply objected that she could not express her Christian beliefs.

And she argued that her websites counted as art and were protected by her constitutional right to free speech.

The Supreme Court agreed.

In the ruling, Judge Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s six conservative justices that the First Amendment “represents the United States as a rich and complex place where everyone is free to think and speak as he pleases, not as the government demands.” ‘

Gorsuch said the court has long held that “the ability to think for ourselves and freely express those thoughts is one of our most cherished freedoms and part of what keeps our Republic strong.”

However, following the ruling, it was revealed that the person behind the same-sex wedding website request was not gay and did not know his name had been used.

Lorie Smith is a Christian graphic designer who said she would refuse requests to design wedding websites for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs

Smith’s case refers to a request from a man named ‘Stewart’ for his marriage to ‘Mike’.

Stewart told The Associated Press he never made the request and was unaware his name had been used in the lawsuit until he was contacted this week by a reporter from The New Republic, who first reported his denial.

“I was incredibly surprised considering I’ve been happily married to a woman for 15 years,” said Stewart, who declined to give his last name for fear of harassment and threats.

His contact details, but not his last name, were listed in court documents.

He added that he was a designer and could “design my own website if necessary” – and was concerned that until recently no one had checked the validity of the request Smith cited.

Smith’s attorney, Kristen Waggoner, said at a press conference Friday that the marriage request using Stewart’s name was submitted through Smith’s website and denied it was fabricated.

She suggested it could be a troll making the request, something that has happened to other clients she has represented.

And Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Friday called the lawsuit a “fabricated case” because Smith was not offering wedding website services when the lawsuit was filed.