SEATTLE (AP) — The U. S. Supreme Court ordered Washington state courts Monday to take a new look at the case of a florist who refused\u2026<\/b>
\nSEATTLE (AP) — The U. S. Supreme Court ordered Washington state courts Monday to take a new look at the case of a florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding, in light of the justices\u2019 recent ruling in a similar case involving a Colorado baker.
The order means the Supreme Court is again, for now, passing on the key issue in both cases: whether business owners citing their faith can refuse to comply with anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people.
The 73-year-old florist, Barronelle Stutzman, appealed after Washington \u2019s Supreme Court ruled unanimously last year that she broke the state\u2019s anti-discrimination law by refusing on religious grounds to provide flowers for the wedding of a customer at her Richland shop, Arlene\u2019s Flowers, in 2013.
Early this month, the Supreme Court issued a limited ruling in favor of Jack Phillips, the proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado.
In an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the 7-2 majority found that comments by a member of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission displayed an anti-religious bias — depriving Phillips of the respect and consideration his beliefs deserved. The commissioner had said that \u201creligion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history,\u201d including slavery and the Holocaust.
Kennedy wrote that such disputes \u201cmust be resolved with tolerance, without undue disrespect to sincere religious beliefs, and without subjecting gay persons to indignities when they seek goods and services in an open market.\u201d
Washington courts will now review the florist\u2019s case for similar issues, but it\u2019s unclear whether their analysis will change. The state\u2019s high court held in its ruling floral arrangements do not constitute protected free speech, and that providing flowers to a same-sex wedding would not serve as an endorsement of same-sex marriage.
Both Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Stutzman\u2019s attorneys said the U. S. Supreme Court\u2019s action was appropriate in light of the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision.
\u201cThe Washington State Supreme Court now has the job of determining whether the U. S. Supreme Court ruling affects this case,\u201d Ferguson said in a written statement. \u201cI am confident they will come to the same conclusion they did in their previous, unanimous ruling upholding the civil rights of same-sex couples in our state.\u201d
But Stutzman\u2019s attorney, Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel at the religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, said the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision should prompt an overturning of Stutzman\u2019s case. She cited what she described as the attorney general\u2019s \u201cunprecedented measures to punish Barronelle not just in her capacity as a business owner but also in her personal capacity.\u201d
\u201cThe Washington attorney general\u2019s efforts to punish her because he dislikes her beliefs about marriage are as impermissible as Colorado\u2019s attempt to punish Jack,\u201d Waggoner said.
Waggoner said Stutzman had sold the customer, Rob Ingersoll, flowers for nearly a decade and knew he was gay, but that his marriage did not comport with her beliefs and she could not provide services for it.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington represents Ingersoll and his husband, Curt Freed.
\u201cThere is simply no record of anti-religious sentiment from the Washington State courts, and we have every reason to believe the Washington State Supreme Court will reaffirm Curt and Robert\u2019s right to be full and equal members of our society,\u201d Emily Chiang said, the chapter\u2019s legal director.
___
Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed from Washington .<\/p>\n

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