Progressive Democrats of America condemns the Supreme Court decision announced today which elevates any bigots’ “Worries” above the basic human rights of LGBTQ+ people.

The Court’s decision begins with this assertion: “Lorie Smith wants to expand her graphic design business, 303 Creative LLC, to include services for couples seeking wedding websites. But Ms. Smith worries that Colorado will use the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to compel her—in violation of the First Amendment—to create websites celebrating marriages she does not endorse.”

The decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis was wrongfully decided for many reasons. In order to even consider this case, the Court made a ridiculous stretch to manufacture standing—the ability to access the judicial system to remedy a specific harm—out of whole cloth, far beyond any reasonable basis. 

Merely by granting certiorari to assuage the “worries” of a person who had yet to even begin offering web design services to the public, the Court signaled a dangerous homophobic hostility to equal rights for LGBTQ+ people.

Considering their string of decisions attacking equal rights and civil rights, the majority’s decision continues an extreme, ideological assault on inclusiveness and Equal Protection under law. 

Like the wrongfully decided Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College ruling announced yesterday, this decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress” as Justice Sotomayor expressed in her Students for Fair Admissions dissent. 

This is just the latest in a premeditated effort to reverse hard won progress towards equal protection by imposing invidious, racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and other bigoted discrimination upon our diverse population. 

As we said yesterday regarding the attack on Affirmative Action, “we at PDA decry this latest right wing assertion of White Male Cis Het Supremacy.”

The majority’s purported concern for First Amendment rights is belied by their radical re-imagination of standing to include mere “worries,” and their redefinition of “compelled speech” to include contemplation of offering services including posting wedding announcements online.

We reassert: “The majority’s intention is clear. In striking down decades-old public policies carefully calculated—often adjusted and improved—they’re actively seeking to halt if not reverse progress toward racial and other equality.”

Once more, “this court has indefensibly thrown out well-established, well-decided doctrine. Once more, the right wing extremist jurists have trampled stare decisis—the principle that past precedent should determine legal decision making in a case involving similar facts.”

The tortured rationale foisted upon us by the majority in this decision could apply to any “worries” any business person might have about offering goods or services to People of Color, religious minorities, and others. 

In short, it could unravel every protection under the Civil Rights Act and similar long standing, hard won measures to promote and guarantee rights for vulnerable communities. This is just the latest outrageous attack on inclusiveness and fairness by a right wing Court run amok. 

PDA is organizing opposition to this judicial tyranny. We will continue speaking out against injustice. We need your help to lead this struggle! [Please Give Generously Now to Support PDA’s Efforts To Bring Balance Back To The Supreme Court] make section in brackets link to: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/supremecourtpda