303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

Summary

The Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits Colorado from compelling a website designer to create expressive wedding websites conveying messages with which she disagrees. The Court reversed the Tenth Circuit, concluding that applying Colorado’s public-accommodations law to compel such speech violated the Free Speech Clause.

Holdings

1. Customized wedding websites containing original words, graphics, and other expressive content qualify as pure speech protected by the First Amendment, including when the speech is conveyed over the Internet and offered for compensation through a business entity.
2. The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees.
3. Colorado's compelling interest in ensuring equal access to public accommodations does not justify compelling an individual's protected expressive speech, and the State may not conscript a unique expressive voice to disseminate government-preferred messages.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Colorado's application of its public-accommodations law could compel a website designer to create customized expressive websites communicating messages with which she disagreed.
2. Whether the proposed wedding websites constituted protected pure speech and the designer's own speech despite being created for customers and offered for compensation through a limited liability company.
3. Whether Colorado's interest in ensuring equal access to publicly available goods and services justified compelling the designer's speech under strict scrutiny.

Disposition

reversed