A Denver-area web designer, who won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that said the right to free speech allows some businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings, has asked a judge in Colorado to award her nearly $2 million in legal fees.
Conservative legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Christian web designer Lorie Smith in her fight against a Colorado anti-discrimination law, in a court filing, opens new tab on Wednesday said their victory after seven years entitled them to compensation.
“The journey was long, complex, and ground-breaking. Colorado (and later the United States) raised legal obstacles at every turn,” the lawyers told Chief U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer in Denver.
They said their $2 million request would reimburse them for 2,174.4 hours of work on the litigation, a 36% reduction from the 3,374.9 billed hours they devoted to the case.
Smith in her lawsuit cited her beliefs against gay marriage as justifying her refusal to provide custom web design services for same-sex weddings.
The justices in a 6-3 order last year overturned a lower court’s ruling that said Smith must comply with a Colorado state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and other factors.
Alliance Defending Freedom on Thursday did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Colorado attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Successful plaintiffs in some cases are entitled to seek legal fees from the opposing party under a provision of federal law.
Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom is a faith-based legal advocacy organization that pursues lawsuits related to religious liberty. The group was involved in the unsuccessful challenge to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
The Supreme Court’s divided ruling in Smith’s favor was widely seen as among the most consequential First Amendment cases in years.
In the court’s decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch said forcing Smith to create speech that she does not believe would violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the court’s other two liberal justices said in a dissent that the ruling for the first time in history “grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”
The case is 303 Creative LLC v. Aubrey Elenis et al, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, No 1:16-cv-02372-PAB.
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