Newsfront


Banner Week for Conservatives


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Progressives reel from Supreme Court decisions. BY MICHAEL DORSTEWITZ


t was a banner week for con- servatives. In the final days of June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down


race-based admission standards at colleges and universities (affirma- tive action), as well as President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness exec- utive order. Liberals were left howling over the decisions. But it was a First Amendment free-


dom of speech case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, that caused the greatest belly- aching — and misunderstanding — even among those who should know better. 303 Creative is a Colorado-based


web design company owned and oper- ated by Lorie Smith, a devout Chris- tian. Smith plans to expand her busi-


Key Court Rulings Race-based


afirmative action admissions programs violate the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection under


the law. Vote: 6–3 Free speech


allows certain businesses to refuse to provide services for same- sex weddings.


ness to design wedding websites. However, she wants to limit this


service to celebrate unions only between one man and one woman. But those plans violated the Colora-


do Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), which would compel her to create websites celebrating marriages she doesn’t endorse. Smith says that gay and lesbian


weddings conflict with her strongly held religious beliefs, which in turn prompted a seven-year legal odyssey that ended before the nine justices. The court focused only on Smith’s


free speech rights and held that the First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing her to create messages with which she disagrees. “The First Amendment envisions


the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think


Vote: 6–3 President Joe


Biden cannot cancel $430 billion in student loan debt, an “executive agency action of vast economic and political significance not


clearly authorized by Congress.” Vote: 6–3 State legislatures do not have unchecked power to set rules for federal elections. Vote: 6–3


Alabama diluted


and speak as they wish, not as the gov- ernment demands,” said Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing the 6-3 opinion. “Colorado cannot deny that prom-


ise consistent with the First Amend- ment.”


Gorsuch was joined by Chief Jus-


tice John Roberts and Justices Clar- ence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Heritage Foundation senior legal fellows Sarah Parshall Perry and


the power of Black voters by drawing a congressional voting map with a single district in which they made up a majority. Vote 5–4 Employers must


make allowances . . . And Banner Day for Freedom


White House blocked from being a Big Tech censor.


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federal judge used the best of all days to remind the Biden administration what freedom


means — the 247th anniversary this year of the Declara- tion of Independence. Terry A. Doughty, chief judge of the U.S. District


10 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2023


Court for the Western District of Louisiana, signed an injunction on July 4 blocking Biden administration agen- cies from working with Big Tech to censor social media posts.


Citing “substantial evidence” of government censor-


ship, he wrote that the “evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Gov-


for workers’ religious practices, siding with a postal worker who was disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays for religious reasons. Vote: 9-0


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