Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf
Page Number: 54

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303 CREATIVE LLC v. ELENIS 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

its wedding websites.  The only thing the business may not 
do is deny whatever websites it offers on the basis of sexual 
orientation.    This  Court,  however,  grants  the  business  a 
broad exemption from state law and allows the business to 
post a notice that says: Wedding websites will be refused to
gays  and  lesbians.  The  Court’s  decision,  which  conflates 
denial of service and protected expression, is a grave error. 

A 
303 Creative LLC is a limited liability company that sells
graphic and website designs for profit.  Lorie Smith is the 
company’s founder and sole member-owner.  Smith believes 
same-sex marriages are “false,” because “ ‘God’s true story 
of marriage’ ” is a story of a “ ‘union between one man and 
one woman.’ ”  Brief for Petitioners 4, 6–7 (quoting App. to
Pet. for Cert. 188a, 189a); Tr. of Oral Arg. 36, 40–41.  Same-
sex  marriage,  according  to  her,  “violates  God’s  will”  and 
“harms society and children.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 186a. 

303  Creative  has  never  sold  wedding  websites.  Smith 
now believes, however, that “God is calling her ‘to explain
His  true  story  about  marriage.’ ”    Brief  for  Petitioners  7 
(quoting App. to Pet. for Cert. 188a).  For that reason, she 
says, she wants her for-profit company to enter the wedding
website business.  There is only one thing: Smith would like 
her company to sell wedding websites “to the public,” App.
to Pet. for Cert. 189a; Colo. Rev. Stat. §24–34–601(1), but
not to same-sex couples.  She also wants to post a notice on
the company’s website announcing this intent to discrimi-
nate.  App. to Pet. for Cert. 188a–189a.  In Smith’s view, “it 
would violate [her] sincerely held religious beliefs to create 
a wedding website for a same-sex wedding because, by do-
ing so, [she] would be expressing a message celebrating and 
promoting a conception of marriage that [she] believe[s] is 
contrary to God’s design.”  Id., at 189a. 

Again, Smith’s company has never sold a wedding web-
site to any customer.  Colorado, therefore, has never had to