On Friday, the Supreme Court released its ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, siding with a website designer who refused to create websites celebrating same-sex weddings because of her religious objections.
Naturally, leftists were livid, and we were treated to the usual bellyaching of Democrats blasting the court as illegitimate. But the most amusing reactions to the ruling have been from liberals on social media, expressing disgust while simultaneously committing themselves to actual discrimination. Ashley St. Clair of the Babylon Bee posted a photo on Twitter of a small business that posted signs in its windows saying that, since the Supreme Court ruled that businesses “can discriminate,” it would not sell merchandise to Trump supporters and would only sell to churches that display pride flags.
telling people not to shop at your small business to own republicans pic.twitter.com/K5xYgSiOuR
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) July 1, 2023
Obviously, if this is what a business owner wants to do, they’re doing a favor to conservatives who know they don’t need to spend their money there — much in the same way we’ve boycotted Bud Light and Target.
But what I’ve noticed on social media since the ruling came out is the way liberals think they’re demonstrating moral superiority by saying they will refuse to serve conservatives, or would if they owned a business.
Related: Democrats Are All About Refusing Service To People
“I own a few businesses and if I know that someone is a Trump supporter, I will refuse service!” one Twitter user said in response to the photo. “I don’t need that evil person’s money! Their lifestyle goes against my faith.”
“I wish I owned a retail business, so I could refuse to serve Conservative Christians on religious grounds,” said some liberal on Twitter.
“Gonna open a business and refuse to serve Christians,” remarked another.
Another wrote, “I am going to start a business and refuse to serve homophobic, heterosexual Christians.”
And so on. But they’ve got the whole situation completely backward.
Contrary to the claims of Justice Sonia Sotomayor or the pretentious leftists on social media, the Supreme Court did not rule that businesses can discriminate. What the court actually did was rule that the state cannot compel speech. When the state insists that a professional must create something that violates their personal or religious beliefs, that’s a violation of their First Amendment rights. That is entirely different from a business refusing to sell merchandise to someone — which is flat-out discrimination. In fact, neither Lorie Smith of 303 Creative nor the baker Jack Phillips ever denied service to gay customers; they only refused to create messages that celebrate a lifestyle going against their religious beliefs.
“Lorie works with everyone, including clients who identify as LGBT,” Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Kristen Waggoner said in a statement. “As the court highlighted, her decisions to create speech always turn on what message is requested, never on who requests it. The ruling makes clear that nondiscrimination laws remain firmly in place, and that the government has never needed to compel speech to ensure access to goods and services.”
What these people — who think they’re proving how tolerant they are by endorsing actual discrimination — don’t understand is that they are proving who the real bigots are.