State judges did not act with religious animus when weighing the Arlene's Flowers case, the Washington Supreme Court held.
The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state courts had not acted with religious animus when they held that a florist violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to sell flowers to a same-sex couple for their wedding.
“We are thrilled that the Court has reaffirmed its ruling in our favor,” Freed and Ingersoll said in a statement. “Discrimination hurts, especially while planning what should be one of the happiest times of your life. We hope that this ruling will prevent what happened to us from happening to others.”
Stutzman filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case in 2017, but the country’s highest court kicked the case back to the Washington Supreme Court in June 2018. The U.S. Supreme Court, which had just ruled in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, directed the state court to reexamine the Arlene’s Flowers case in light of that decision.
But the Washington Supreme Court said Thursday that the state courts in its case did not treat Stutzman’s religious views with hostility and therefore upheld its decision that her refusal to serve Freed and Ingersoll was not protected by her First Amendment right to free speech.
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