Woman Who Brought Anti-LGBTQ+ SCOTUS Case Did Make a Wedding Website: Report

There’s more controversy surrounding Colorado web designer Lorie Smith, whose objection to making a hypothetical website for a same-sex couple won over conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices in June. They ruled in favor of her last month in 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis, opening the door to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people nationwide.

While her case has been criticized for being based on a situation that had not presented itself and for featuring claims on behalf of people who later denied involvement, the high court seems to have cared little about such details when it rendered its decision.

Now comes news that Smith, who claimed that Colorado’s legal landscape made it impossible for her to operate a wedding website design business, had created at least one wedding website in the past. She deleted all references to it from her company’s website before starting her legal campaign against serving the LGBTQ+ community, The New Republic reports.

It was reported previously by the magazine that the site creation request at the center of 303 Creative was fake based on its reporting.

Smith, represented by the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that Colorado’s antidiscrimination law curbed her free speech regarding her opposition to same-sex marriage.

Smith’s attorneys claimed she was prevented from designing any wedding websites due to state laws, telling the justices, “For six years, she has been unable to speak in the marketplace.”

Ultimately, the court’s conservative wing ruled in favor of Smith, delighting right-wingers and certain religious groups while horrifying LGBTQ+ advocates.

According to a report from The New Republic on Tuesday, a researcher obtained an image of a wedding website designed by Smith around 2015 using the Wayback Machine service from the Internet Archive.

In a bizarre string of 17 back-to-back posts, ADF claimed there was nothing to see there and that Smith was being made to look back by the progressive magazine.

“@NewRepublic is at work manufacturing its FIFTH desperate attack on graphic artist Lorie Smith. Why? To impugn Lorie and delegitimize the landmark #SCOTUS ruling in #303Creative that protects every American’s free speech rights. Lorie has nothing to hide, so here’s the truth,” the group protested before attacking the publication and claiming that she created the websites for her sister as a gift and that because she didn’t charge for it, the site was irrelevant.

“While @NewRepublic’s targeted campaign against Lorie shows no signs of letting up, @ADFLegal and Lorie won’t be deterred. @ADFLegal will continue our important work of defending everyone’s freedom of speech, including those we disagree with,” the group deflected on Twitter.