Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich leads coalition to protect small business free speech

A coalition of 20 states attorneys general filed an amicus brief on Thursday urging the Supreme Court to protect the free speech rights of a Colorado web designer who declined to promote same-sex weddings.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law cannot use their public accommodation laws to force business owners to create custom speech, arguing it is a violation of the First Amendment, according to a statement issued by his office about 303 Creative vs. Elenis.

“Owners of small companies do not give up their constitutional rights as a cost of doing business,” said Brnovich.

“Freedoms of speech, belief, and expression are at the core of who we are as Americans, and our government is out of line to infringe on them.”

Lori Smith, owners of 303 Creative, is a Colorado graphic artist and web designer who reportedly wanted to expand into wedding websites.

But her religious beliefs prohibit her from promoting same-sex weddings, which runs afoul of the same state anti-discrimination law used against Colorado wedding cake designer Jack Phillips.

Smith’s case differs from Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission because that case was focused on the freedom of religion, not free speech. The Supreme Court sided 7-2 with Phillips that the law had not been neutrally applied but not whether he could be compelled to make the cake.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in February.

Brnovich’s amicus brief leans on SCOTUS’ precedents that have banned compelled speech without nullifying public accommodation laws.

Joining Arizona are the states of Nebraska, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

Brnovich also co-led a smaller coalition of 16 states in Oct. 2021 urging the Supreme Court to take this case.