Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg claimed Sunday the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Christian web designer to pursue their alleged “agenda.”
The court ruled in favor of Christian web designer Lorie Smith in a Friday 6-3 decision, stating a Colorado law requiring her to make a website for a same-sex couple’s wedding violates her right to free speech. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion stated if the court had ruled the opposite way, the government would have the power to force individuals to violate their religious beliefs.
Buttigieg argued Gorsuch’s decision had no merit during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He claimed the court and Republican state legislatures are intentionally “chipping away” at the rights of LGBT Americans.
“I think there’s something in common between this Supreme Court ruling and what we’re seeing happening in state legislatures across the country which is kind of a solution looking for a problem,” the Transportation Secretary told CNN anchor Dana Bash. “In other words, sending these kinds of things to the courts and sending these kinds of things to state legislatures for the clear purpose of chipping away at the equality, the rights that have so recently been won in the LGBTQ+ community.”
Buttigieg lamented over Smith challenging the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) since critics alleged no same-sex couple approached her for a wedding website. (RELATED: Legal Expert Gives Reality Check To MSNBC Anchor Panicking Over SCOTUS Ruling)
“The fact that this was relief from a situation that may have never happened in the first place, tells you everything you need to know about this agenda to use every instrument of government, courts and legislatures, to claw back at these rights for people who are just trying to go about their lives and just trying to be treated equally by businesses and by the government,” he concluded.
Smith, who created 303 Creative and was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), challenged the state law. She argued it would force her to ignore her deeply held religious belief marriage is between one man and one woman.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, with Sotomayor writing Smith’s view is “profoundly wrong.” She further wrote in her dissenting opinion the decision is “heartbreaking” because it could lead to the “reactionary exclusion” of LGBTQ people.