Freedom of Speech Wins Again

Women’s Group Praises SCOTUS Decision Backing Businesswoman 

Washington, D.C. – Today, Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization praised the United States Supreme Court for its decision in 303 Creative v Elenis, that protects the rights of individual citizens to express their free speech rights and not be forced to express views that are contrary to their conscience.

The case involves Lorie Smith a small business owner of a design studio, 303 Creative, specializing in graphic and website design being forced by a Colorado law to say things that go against her faith and require her to create designs that violate her beliefs about marriage. Lorie challenged the constitutionality of the law as applied to her as the First Amendment prohibits government not only from prohibiting speech they do not like, but also from forcing citizens to speak messages they do not want to speak. In this case, the violation is compounded by the fact that the government seeks to force citizens to express messages by force of law, but also, they want to force messages that violate the deeply held religious beliefs of citizens.

“The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy,” wrote the majority opinion.

“It’s a great day for freedom! We all win with Lori’s win today,” said Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA). When we protect freedom of speech, all Americans, regardless of political persuasion, are better for it.” 

“Concerned Women for America and Young Women for America leaders were present to stand for our First Amendment freedoms on the day of oral arguments for this case. And we were there today to make sure we let the world know that conservative women stand for the freedom of speech of all. We are not afraid to engage in meaningful debates and let the hearer decide. But time and again, we experience a government trying to force our silence. We are glad the Supreme Court today said enough is enough. 

“Even after the strong rebuke the U.S. Supreme Court gave Colorado in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case about its malicious, unconstitutional targeting of faithful citizens because of their religious beliefs, the state insisted in the unamerican practice of using a public-accommodation law pretext to compel artists to speak or stay silent in clear violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

“This hard-working businesswoman simply wants to do her creative work without fear or intimidation from government bureaucrats dictating what she can and cannot say. The government should never be able to compel artists to speak messages they disagree with or to censor them from speaking messages they want to speak. Most American want this for themselves, which is why most stand with Lorie and not the radicals trying to silence her.”