On Florists and "Sincerely Held" Beliefs
As I have mentioned before, when I am not writing this blog, I work as a lawyer. I try to keep those two worlds separate, but every once in a while something crops up that bridges the gap that is interesting and worth talking about. One such issue is the recent decision in State of Washington v. Arlene's Flowers , a copy of which you can find here from the Washington Supreme Court . What I would like to do in this piece is to talk about the legal issues at stake here, because I think that the way this is being talked about misses a big part of what the key issues at stake are in this case, and similar cases that are surely coming down the pike. Arlene's Flowers is a floral shop owned by Baronelle Stutzman. Ms. Stutzman refused to sell flowers to Robert Ingersoll for his wedding, because Mr. Ingersoll was intending to (and in fact did) marry a man, Curt Freed. Ms. Stutzman and Arlene's Flowers were sued by both Mr. Ingersoll and the State of Washingt...