The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in a case from a Colorado website designer who claims a Colorado anti-discrimination law violates the First Amendment rights of some artists by forcing them to provide services for messages they oppose.
Lorie Smith says the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act violates her right to free speech because it requires her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, a message inconsistent with her religious beliefs. The law bans public businesses from denying goods or services based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other characteristics.
In 2018, the court ruled on a similar case dealing with the same Colorado law in favor of a baker who refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. Still, the court avoided the broader question of whether businesses could discriminate and be protected by the First Amendment.
Questions from the 6-3 conservative majority court suggested they may be willing to carve out a narrow exemption and are expected to announce a decision next year. |
Georgia voters will decide today between Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in the state\'s US Senate runoff amid record-breaking early voting. Warnock finished ahead of Walker in the first round of voting, 49.4% to 48.5%, but failed to pass the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
Support for Warnock, a pastor who won a similar runoff in January 2021, is focused in Atlanta precincts as well as several smaller cities around the state. Walker, a former football star, won more counties than Warnock, although each candidate carried the same number of precincts across the state at roughly 1,300. Key election factors include the roughly 81,000 voters who supported Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver during the first round of voting, as well as undecided suburban independents.
Democrats have secured a Senate majority when factoring in Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tiebreaker. Surveys suggest Warnock enters with a few percentage point lead that remains within the margin of error. Polls close at 7 pm ET. |
A trial began yesterday for 10 Islamic State extremists accused of the 2016 bombings at an airport and a subway station in Brussels, Belgium, that killed 32 people and injured hundreds. The bombings are the deadliest peacetime attack in Belgium, and the trial is considered the largest in the nation\'s history.
The Brussels trial follows a similar trial in Paris, which concluded in June and focused on a group of Islamic State extremists who carried out a series of attacks
one night in 2015, which left 130 people dead. The attack was the deadliest in France since World War II. Six of the defendants in the Brussels case were convicted in the Paris case, including Salah Abdeslam, who is the lone survivor of the Paris attacks and serving life without parole.
Unlike the French trial, the Belgian trial will be decided by a jury. It is expected to feature testimony from over 300 witnesses and last six to nine months. |
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