Page:303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.pdf/21

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)
15

Opinion of the Court

1180. In some sense, of course, her voice is unique; so is everyone’s. But that hardly means a State may coopt an individual’s voice for its own purposes. In Hurley, the veterans had an “enviable” outlet for speech; after all, their parade was a notable and singular event. 515 U. S., at 560, 577–578. In Dale, the Boy Scouts offered what some might consider a unique experience. 530 U. S., at 649–650. But in both cases this Court held that the State could not use its public accommodations statute to deny speakers the right “to choose the content of [their] own message[s].” Hurley, 515 U. S., at 573; see Dale, 530 U. S., at 650–656. Were the rule otherwise, the better the artist, the finer the writer, the more unique his talent, the more easily his voice could be conscripted to disseminate the government’s preferred messages. That would not respect the First Amendment; more nearly, it would spell its demise.

IV

Before us, Colorado appears to distance itself from the Tenth Circuit’s reasoning. Now, the State seems to acknowledge that the First Amendment does forbid it from coercing Ms. Smith to create websites endorsing same-sex marriage or expressing any other message with which she disagrees. See Brief for Respondents 12 (disclaiming any interest in “interfer[ing] with [Ms. Smith’s] choice to offer only websites of [her] own design”); see also Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 19 (conceding that “constitutional concerns” would arise if Colorado “require[d] petitione[r] to design a website” that she “would not create or convey for any client”). Instead, Colorado devotes most of its efforts to advancing an alternative theory for affirmance.

The State’s alternative theory runs this way. To comply with Colorado law, the State says, all Ms. Smith must do is repurpose websites she will create to celebrate marriages she does endorse for marriages she does not. She sells a product to some, the State reasons, so she must sell the