State AG ‘expected’ Supreme Court to send same-sex case back to Washington
Jun 25, 2018, 6:45 AM | Updated: 10:38 am
The Arlene's Flowers saga continues. (File, Associated Press)
(File, Associated Press)
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson says he’s not surprised the U.S. Supreme Court sent the Arlene’s Flowers case back for review, calling it a “procedural step.”
Ferguson says the Washington State Supreme Court now has to determine whether the recent court ruling involving a Colorado cakeshop refusing to cater to a same-sex wedding affects the Arlene’s Flowers case.
“I am confident they will come to the same conclusion they did in their previous, unanimous ruling upholding the civil rights of same-sex couples in our state,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson brought the case against Arlene’s Flowers and owner Barronelle Stutzman when she refused to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered Washington courts to take a new look at the Arlene’s Flowers case.
The justices’ order Monday 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.
The court said in the Colorado case that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission expressed anti-religious bias in violation of the baker’s constitutional rights. Washington courts will review the florist’s case for similar issues.
It’s not clear from the record that the Washington Supreme Court will evaluate Stutzman’s case any differently in light of the Colorado ruling.
There are no similar allegations that bias affected the state court decisions, and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the recent Supreme Court ruling will have no effect on the case against Baronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers store in Richland, Washington.
But the Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Kristen Waggoner, who represents Stutzman, said Ferguson “pursued unprecedented measures to punish Barronelle not just in her capacity as a business owner but also in her personal capacity.”
Washington’s Supreme Court came to a unanimous decision in 2017 that the state “bars discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story
