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Graphic artist who refused to design gay wedding site says she's been threatened since SCOTUS ruling

"Despite the victory last week, I do continue to face horrific attacks," she said.

Published: July 6, 2023 3:14pm

Colorado website designer Lorie Smith says that she has been receiving extreme harassment, including death threats, after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in her favor in a case last week that started when she refused to design a wedding website for a gay couple.

"Especially in the last week, despite the victory last week, I do continue to face horrific attacks, people saying they hope I would be raped; they want to burn my house down; they know where I live, and they want to come kill me and my family," she told The Epoch Times on Wednesday.

Kellie Fiedorek, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, the public interest law group that represented Smith, said her team is monitoring the threats "very closely to determine the best way to protect Lorie and to take action consistent with the threat."

Smith also said that her website crashed after it was hit with more than 10 million attacks. 

"It’s sad to me because, at the end of the day, when I am standing to protect those individuals who have submitted those hateful responses, standing to protect me and them as well, of course, it’s heartbreaking," Smith added. 

Justice Neil Gorsuch criticized Colorado's anti-discrimination law in the court's majority opinion.

"Colorado does not just seek to ensure the sale of goods or services on equal terms. It seeks to use its law to compel an individual to create speech she does not believe. The question we face is whether that course violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment," the court stated.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

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