Alliance Defending Freedom set the record straight this week after liberal media outlets, activists, and public figures sought to discredit the 303 Creative v. Elenis case, the legal group, and their client, Christian web designer Lorie Smith.
The New Republic, for example, published a widely circulated piece headlined, “The Mysterious Case of the Fake Gay Marriage Website, the Real Straight Man, and the Supreme Court,” suggesting Smith and ADF “invented a gay couple in need of a wedding website…”
ADF addressed the accusations head on in a Twitter thread this week.
It's undisputed that Smith received the request in Sept. 2016 after she filed her case, and that she received other requests for custom weddings amidst the pending case.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 3, 2023
Regardless, whether she received any requests at all is irrelevant to the legal issues of the case.
Specifically addressing the claims made in The New Republic piece, ADF said it was a "lie."
Pre-enforcement challenges allow people to avoid the choice between risking prosecution or giving up their freedom, and these lawsuits have been a hallmark of America’s tradition of civil-rights litigation for over 100 years.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 3, 2023
SCOTUS ruled on more than a dozen cases of this kind in the last 10 years. Pre-enforcement challenges have been brought by parties across the ideological spectrum (including the ACLU and the SPLC).
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 3, 2023
ADF also pushed back on claims made by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.
This directly CONTRADICTS facts the state of Colorado stipulated and the arguments we made in court.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 3, 2023
Read more on those facts in our press release: https://t.co/acfLrZYzrs
Full opinion: https://t.co/sFZoDHWcSs
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 3, 2023
“This desperate attempt to malign ADF, our client, and a critical ruling affirming all Americans’ free speech blatantly distorts the facts of the case and the nature of pre-enforcement lawsuits,” said ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner. “To say that Lorie Smith or ADF fabricated a request for a same-sex wedding website is a lie. It would make no sense to have fabricated a request because one wasn’t required for the court to decide her case. To pretend that a request that nowhere featured in the Supreme Court’s decision was at ‘the heart’ of the case demonstrates an ignorance regarding the legal principles involved. And it’s telling that many who push this false narrative can’t bring themselves to consider the more likely scenario that ‘Stewart’ or another activist did in fact submit the request.”