Christian designer’s refusal to create website for same sex couple to be heard by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed its latest victory to the right by agreeing to take a case against Colorado’s LGBT+ anti-discrimination law.

The Court announced that it would hear a case against a state law prohibiting businesses from refusing service to LGBT+ persons on the basis of religious objections filed by a website developer who specialises in online wedding announcement sites who does not wish to serve same-sex couples.

The case follows a narrowly-written 7-2 decision in 2018 in favour of a baker who wished to refuse service to same-sex couples who challenged the same law. The specifics in that case, however, led to the Court acknowledging at the time that it could rule the other way were the circumstances to change.

“The outcome of cases like this in other circumstances must await further elaboration in the courts, all in the context of recognizing that these disputes must 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,” read the 2018 ruling.

While the announcement of the Court’s decision to hear the case came on Tuesday, it will not be argued before the Court until the next term. That means it will likely be one of the first major cases which President Joe Biden’s eventual nominee to replace Justice Stephen Breyer will hear.

Mr Biden has pledged that his nominee will be the first Black woman to serve on the bench in the Supreme Court’s history. That pledge has rankled some conservative Republicans, who have raised allegations of discrimination.

The case to be brought against the law this time will likely result in a much broader ruling that would decide the constitutionality of the law one way or the other.

As a result, the Colorado law may become one of the victims of the Court’s rightward shift, which occurred under former President Donald Trump’s administration when three justices were confirmed to the bench and the conservative majority was strengthened and cemented for years to come.

The significance of the additions to the Court have not been lost on progressives, who have reacted with calls to expand the Court past its nine-member bench. That plan is strongly opposed by Mr Biden, who embraced compromise last year and established a White House commission to consider reforms to the US judiciary including the Supreme Court.

LGBT+ rights are just one of many issues to go before the Court in the months ahead, and the justices are set to rule on two major abortion cases including the most significant challenge to Roe V Wade in years before the next term ends as well.