SCOTUS Refuses to Hear Case on LGBTQ-Exclusionary Florist

Another legal win for the LGBTQ community, the Supreme Court announced last week that it will not hear a case regarding a Christian florist in Washington State who says she had the right to refuse service to a same-gender couple because of her religious beliefs. This announcement means the lower court’s ruling, which stated the florist doesn’t have the right to discriminate agains LGBTQ people, stands.

The case, Ingersoll & Freed v. Arlene’s Flowers, Inc., began in 2013, as shop owner Barronelle Stutzman refused to provide flowers for Curt Freed and Robert Ingersoll’s wedding. She cited her Souther Baptist religion and said that the couple’s union went against her religion.

Washington initially fined Stutzman $1,000 for violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws, additionally issuing her a court order requiring the store to serve same-gender couples. The Washington Supreme Court upheld the order in a 9-0 vote.

The florist has been represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBTQ group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center which has also played a role in the slew of anti-trans bills in states around the country. The ADF says Washington State violated Stutzman’s right to religious expression and her right to free speech, in that her floral arrangements were a form of protected, free speech under the first amendment.

The same-gender couple was represented by the ACLU, which released a statement over the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the case.

“Today, the Supreme Court confirmed that LGBTQ people should receive equal service when they walk into a store,” ACLU lawyer Ria Tabacco Mar says in the statement. “Planning a wedding was a joyful time for Rob and Curt until they were refused service at their local flower shop. No one should walk into a store and have to wonder whether they will be turned away because of who they are. Preventing that kind of humiliation and hurt is exactly why we have nondiscrimination laws. Yet, 60 percent of states still don’t have express protections for LGBTQ people like the kind in Washington State. Our work isn’t over yet.”

The verdict follows others of a similar nature, like a recent case in Colorado, when Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cake Shop refused to make a trans woman, Autumn Scardina, a birthday cake, arguing that it violated his religious beliefs. A Colorado Judge similarly ruled that this was illegal.

Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David spoke on the ruling, saying he believes the court’s decision not to hear the Arlene’s Flowers case clearly communicates that religious beliefs do not give people the right to discriminate.

“By denying certiorari in Ingersoll & Freed v. Arlene’s Flowers, Inc., SCOTUS has once again said that critical nondiscrimination laws protecting LGBTQ people are legally enforceable and has set a strong and definitive precedent,” David says in the statement. “Now, we need these protections for the LGBTQ community, and all people, across the country, and in every walk of life. That’s why we need to double-down on our efforts to pass The Equality Act. The Court has validated nondiscrimination protections, now Congress must follow suit.”