California officials blast Supreme Court’s ‘dangerous and horrifying’ anti-LGBTQ decision

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CALIFORNIA ELECTEDS RESPOND TO SCOTUS ANTI-LGBTQ DECISION

LGBTQ Pride Month did not end the way advocates hoped it would: With a U.S. Supreme Court victory.

Instead, the nation’s highest court ruled 6-3 Friday that private businesses have a First Amendment right to discriminate against LGBTQ patrons by refusing them service.

The case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, stems from a challenge to Colorado’s anti-discrimination law. It was filed by a Christian website designer who said that her religious beliefs prevented her from creating wedding websites for same-sex couples.

“Consider what a contrary approach would mean. Under Colorado’s logic, the government may compel anyone who speaks for pay on a given topic to accept all commissions on that same topic — no matter the underlying message — if the topic somehow implicates a customer’s statutorily protected trait,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.

California elected officials responded with broad condemnation of the decision.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that “this radical Supreme Court majority once again shows its willingness to bend the Constitution to favor conservative views and undo decades of progress.”

The governor went on to say that this decision “is just the latest blow from a court that seems hellbent on rolling back basic rights, protections, and freedoms that generations of Americans have fought so hard for.”

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, wrote in a tweet that “no business or organization open to the public should be allowed to mask discrimination behind the guise of free speech or religious liberty.”

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement that this is the first time the SCOTUS has granted businesses the right to deny services to a protected class of people.

“I’m fearful it has now opened the door for other forms of discrimination by businesses claiming First Amendment protections,” Feinstein said.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, in a statement called the ruling “dangerous and horrifying,” with major implications for LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws in employment, housing and other contents.

“The court is taking us down a road where discrimination against LGBTQ people is constitutionally protected. This attack isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a well-funded, concerted legal strategy by right wing extremists to hijack the First Amendment and use it as a tool to validate and constitutionally protect anti-LGBTQ discrimination,” Wiener said.

KOUNALAKIS CAMPAIGN BANKS CASH, ENDORSEMENTS

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’ bid for the big chair is bringing in some big money.

On Friday, her gubernatorial campaign spokesman — David Beltran of Bearstar Strategies — announced that she has raised $2.3 million in the just over two months since she jumped into the race. Kounalakis heads into 2024 with $6.7 million in the bank “and a growing list of supporters from across the state,” Beltran said in an email to The Bee.

Among those supporters?

Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as former California Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Both Kounalakis and former State Controller Betty Yee are hoping to be the first woman to serve as California governor. Yee told the San Francisco Chronicle in April that she is running, though she has not yet formally launched her campaign.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Grateful to serve as the 71st Speaker of the California Assembly. I am humbled by the trust placed in me and I am proud to lead the Assembly. Let’s get to work!”

- Newly minted Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• After more than seven years and a protracted, fiery succession battle, California finally has a new Assembly speaker, via Lindsey Holden and Mathew Miranda.

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom was able to wrest budget dollars from skeptical lawmakers for his plan to reform San Quentin State Prison — but the spending plan does not commit to closing more facilities, as some Democrats wanted, via Lindsey Holden.

• As California’s legislature considers a constitutional amendment to protect marriage equality, new census data shows that about 100,000 same-sex couples in the state have tied the knot, via Phillip Reese.

• Sacramento is feeling some excessive heat this weekend as weather officials warn of triple digit temperatures, but what’s not in the forecast is the impact of atmospheric warming from burning fossil fuels, via Ari Plachta.

• Eight more inmates have filed lawsuits alleging they were raped and abused inside the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, where former guard Greg Rodriguez is suspected of attacking at least 22 inmates and now faces 96 criminal counts that include rape, sodomy, sexual battery and rape threatening to use authority, via Sam Stanton.