President Biden said Friday he is "deeply concerned" about the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of a Christian web designer who refused to design gay marriage websites and urged Congress to take action to protect LGBTQI+ people.
"In America, no person should face discrimination simply because of who they are or who they love," Biden said in a White House statement. "The Supreme Court’s disappointing decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis undermines that basic truth, and painfully it comes during Pride month when millions of Americans across the country join together to celebrate the contributions, resilience, and strength of the LGBTQI+ community."
"While the Court’s decision only addresses expressive original designs, I’m deeply concerned that the decision could invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans," Biden continued. "More broadly, today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women."
Biden said his administration "remains committed" to working with the federal government to enforce laws against discrimination and pledged to work with states nationwide to "fight back" against "attempts to roll back civil rights protections."
"When one group’s dignity and equality are threatened, the promise of our democracy is threatened and we all suffer," Biden said.
"Our work to advance equal rights for everyone will continue. That is why we must pass the Equality Act, which will enshrine civil rights protections for LGBTQI+ Americans in federal law and strengthen public accommodations protections for all Americans. I urge Congress to swiftly send this legislation to my desk."
WEB DESIGNER'S VICTORY AT SUPREME COURT IS FREE SPEECH WIN FOR ALL
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday in favor of web designer Lorie Smith by saying she was not legally required to design websites for gay marriages because doing so would violate her free speech rights and Christian beliefs, despite a Colorado law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Friday's decision reversed a lower court ruling that sided against Smith, who said the law infringed on her First Amendment rights by forcing her to promote messages that violate her deeply held faith.
"Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation’s answer is tolerance, not coercion," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. "The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority, along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and called the ruling "a new license to discriminate" and that the "symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status."
"The unattractive lesson of the majority opinion is this: What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is yours. The lesson of the history of public accommodations laws is altogether different. It is that in a free and democratic society, there can be no social castes," Sotomayor said.
Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
