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She cannot create websites that promote messages contrary to her faith, such as messages that condone violence or promote sexual immorality, abortion or same-sex marriage, Smiths lawyers told the Court.

In defending the law, Colorado argues that Smith can make her views known in any public forum she wants. What she cant do is proclaim that she will discriminate as a business.

Prohibiting companies from displaying what would amount to Straight Couples Only messages is permissible, because it restricts speech that proposes illegal activity and is therefore unprotected by the First Amendment, Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser told the Court in the filing as it considered taking the case.

Of course, thats not the point of view from the lawyers representing Smith. Colorado has weaponized its law to silence speech it disagrees with, to compel speech it approves of and to punish anyone who dares to dissent, Kristen Waggoner, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, told The New York Times in a statement.

Thats a fine principle. Except for the right, its not really a principle at all.

Heres a simple way to test it. Substitute Florida for Colorado in Waggoners statement. Does anyone for a second believe that Alliance Defending Freedom, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) or any of the other culture warriors piling on against LGBTQ issues would for a second condemn the Dont Say Gay bill on First Amendment grounds?

Hardly. Alliance Defending Freedom is in fact one of the architects of the rash of anti-LGBTQ measures flooding state legislatures.

The fact is that the only speech the right wants to protect is its own. From its perspective, the First Amendment doesnt extend past the church door. Thats why its so happy to censor not just teachers but books and libraries. The only speech that matters is its own.

Unfortunately, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court are likely to agree. They seem ready to believe that faith supersedes every other right, including the right not to be discriminated against.

The Colorado case will give the justices exactly the case they need to make their religious liberty argument the law of the land. When Anthony Kennedy was still on the Court, the justices punted on another case from Colorado, this one involving a baker who refused to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples.

That ruling, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, was narrow, reflecting Kennedys influence. There will be no such restraint next time around. And if there is a challenge to Floridas Dont Say Gay law, dont expect the justices to apply the same standards as they will to the Colorado law.

Read more from the original source:
The right loves First Amendment rights. But only when it applies to them. - LGBTQ Nation