Case involves whether a website designer in Colorado can refuse to make sites for same-sex weddings. Case was brought by designer Lorie Smith bearing a purely hypothetical injury at Colorado’s hands. Supreme Court’s conservative majority poised to undermine a critical distinction, writes Julian Zelizer. First Amendment jurisprudence has always put commerce at the top of the hierarchy, demanding as little government intervention. For conservatives on the court, however, religion changes everything, even how we should think about commerce. They’ve been carving out spaces where religious claims under the First Amendment trump every other right or law.
