Attorney: SCOTUS decision a ‘great development’ for Arlene’s Flowers

The attorney for the owner of Arlene’s Flowers called the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to send their case back to the state Supreme Court a “great development.”

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The justices’ order means the court is passing — for now — on the chance to decide whether business owners can refuse on religious grounds to comply with anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people.

Jim Campbell, senior counsel of Conservative non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz this is exactly what he thought would happen in light of what happened with a similar case out of Colorado.

Campbell says there are similarities between the case of Arlene’s Flowers and a Colorado baker; both owners refused service to same-sex couples. One key similarity, he says, is a “government hostility toward religious beliefs.”

The Supreme Court found that Colorado’s civil rights commission was not “neutral toward religion” when it ruled against a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple. Campbell says Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson showed hostility toward Arlene’s Flowers owner Baronelle Stutzman when he sued her and her business.

For that reason — and others — Campbell says the Washington State Supreme Court’s 2017 ruling that Arlene’s Flowers discriminated against a same-sex couple should be reversed.

But what makes Campbell think the state’s Supreme Court would rule in their favor this time around?

He says there is now a “clear precedent” that says government cannot be hostile toward people who believe marriage is between a man and a woman and they have a right to practice those beliefs, just like people who support same-sex marriage have a right to their beliefs.

Listen to the entire conversation below.

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