Colorado tried forcing a Christian designer to make websites for gay 'marriages.' Now, it has to pay up.



Lorie Smith is the owner of 303 Creative, a graphic design firm based in Colorado.

While generally happy to produce work for any paying customer, Smith wanted to offer wedding-related services exclusively to straight couples because complicity in the celebration of homosexual unions would otherwise "compromise [her] Christian witness." Since Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act would have forced her to do just that, she took the Democrat-run state to court — and won.

Months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Smith's favor and a federal circuit court barred the state from enforcing the CADA's communication and accommodation clauses against the designer, Colorado officials have come to a settlement, agreeing Tuesday to pay a hefty sum to the guarantors of their defeat.

"As the Supreme Court said, I'm free to create art consistent with my beliefs without fear of Colorado punishing me anymore," Smith said in a statement. "This is a win not just for me but for all Americans — for those who share my beliefs and for those who hold different views."

Smith's original complaint filed in 2016 claimed that Colorado law stripped her and her organization "of the freedom to choose what messages to create and to convey in the marriage context."

'The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy.'

The complaint cited a section of the CADA that prohibits a person to refuse, withhold from, or deny the "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations of a place of public accommodation" to an individual on the basis of sexual preference, "gender identity," and "gender expression." Another clause in the CADA prohibits individuals from advertising that refusal.

The lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court to restore the constitutional freedoms of Smith and 303 Creative "to speak their beliefs and not be compelled to speak messages contrary to those beliefs, and to ensure that other creative professionals in Colorado have the same freedoms."

The case ultimately got kicked up the Supreme Court, which decided in June 2023 that the First Amendment bars Colorado from coercing a website designer to create content with which she disagrees.

Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in the high court's majority opinion, "The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy. In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance."

"All manner of speech — from 'pictures, films, paintings, drawings, and engravings,' to 'oral utterance and the printed word' — qualify for the First Amendment’s protections; no less can hold true when it comes to speech like Ms. Smith’s conveyed over the Internet," wrote the conservative justice.

"Consistent with the First Amendment, the Nation's answer is tolerance, not coercion," added Gorsuch.

'No government has the right to silence individuals for expressing these ideas.'

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion for the leftist minority that the ruling was "profoundly wrong" and will "mark gays and lesbians for second-class status."

Other social liberals similarly bemoaned the court's affirmation of free speech, including CNN talking head Van Jones, who said, "If you care about inclusion and equal opportunity and care about folks who don’t have much and are trying to make it today, this is a tragedy."

Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser, who unsuccessfully represented the state, said at the time that the ruling was "far out of step with the will of the American people and American values."

According to Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal group that represented Smith, the Supreme Court's decision has already been cited nearly 1,000 times in court opinions, briefs, and various legal publications.

Colorado's Civil Rights Division agreed this week to pick up the bill for the CADA's defanging, covering over $1.5 million in attorneys' fees.

Weiser's office confirmed to the Denver Gazette the settlement over the fees but declined to comment.

Kristen Waggoner, the CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom, stated, "The government can't force Americans to say things they don't believe, and Colorado officials have paid and will continue to pay a high price when they violate this foundational freedom."

"For the past 12 years, Colorado has targeted people of faith and forced them to express messages that violate their conscience and that advance the government’s preferred ideology. First Amendment protections are non-negotiable," continued Waggoner. "Billions of people around the world believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that men and women are biologically distinct. No government has the right to silence individuals for expressing these ideas or to punish those who decline to express different views."

Smith expressed hope that "that everyone will celebrate the court's decision upholding this right for each of us to speak freely."

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FACT CHECK: Facebook Post Falsely Claims ADL CEO Said Anyone Who Criticizes Israel Is A ‘Terrorist’

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ADL omits transvestite's massacre of Nashville Christians from its report on extremist-related murders



The Anti-Defamation League made abundantly clear this week that it won't let reality get in the way of its preferred political narrative. The New York-based leftist group's annual report on murder and extremism claims that all of the "extremist-related murders" in the U.S. last year "were tied to right-wing extremism."

This claim caught the eye of one critic who could think of an example of extremism that proved the assessment wanting: the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

When pressed on why it overlooked a radical transvestite's March 2023 massacre of Christians — whose "white privilege" was factored into their targeting — as an instance of extremism, the ADL cited a lack of evidence.

The ADL report

The ADL routinely downplays the threat of leftist and Islamist violence whilst hyping the supposed dangers of right-wing extremism. The group showed no signs of a course correction in its new "Murder and Extremism in the United States" report.

The leftist group claimed, for example, that "no police officers or corrections officers were killed by extremists this past year," apparently overlooking Mohamad Barakat's July 14, 2023, ambush of North Dakota police officers. Days after looking up an article online about the American assassination of an ISIS terrorist, Barakat, a self-described Muslim from Syria who recently became a U.S. citizen, opened fire on three officers, killing Fargo Police Officer Jake Wallin.

Extremist violence against police was apparently not the ADL's only blind spot.

The report claims, "All the extremist-related murders in 2023 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, with 15 of the 17 killings involving perpetrators or accomplices with white supremacist connections."

The ADL defines "right-wing extremism" thusly: "right-wing political, social and religious movements that exist outside of and are more radical than mainstream conservatism."

"This is the second year in a row that right-wing extremists have been connected to all identified extremist-related killings," said the report.

The ADL did not bother to count the Covenant School shooting.

Turning a blind eye to likely leftist extremism

A 28-year-old transvestite stormed a Presbyterian elementary school on March 27, 2023, armed with a rifle, a pistol, and a handgun.

The male-identifying woman murdered three children and three staff members at the Covenant School before police could put her down with four well-placed shots. Her victims were Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9; William Kinney, 9; Katherine Koonce, 60; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Mike Hill, 61.

The shooter left behind what Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake characterized as a "manifesto."

The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil noted that leaked elements of the shooter's manifesto, which police confirmed were legitimate, made clear that the killer transvestite was operating on the basis of the same kinds of anti-white hatred the radical left regularly traffics in.

"Kill those kids!!! Those crackers Going to private fancy schools with those fancy khakis and sports backpacks with their daddies mustangs and convertibles. F— you little sh—s," wrote the female shooter. "I wish to shoot your weak ass d—s with your mop yellow hair, wanna kill all you little crackers!!! Bunch of little f***ots with your white privileges. F— you f***ots."

O'Neil suggested the shooter's remarks aligned with the "left's ideological talking points on 'white privilege' and reveal[ed] a disdain for others based on the skin color."

"This hatred of white people echoes the Marxist claim that America is institutionally racist, so justice demands stripping whites of their 'privilege' and elevating racial minorities rather than securing a level playing field for all races," wrote O'Neil.

The Daily Signal asked the ADL about its decision to omit the transvestite's massacre from its list of extremist incidents and was told the Covenant School shooting does not show "clear evidence of extremism."

"The case of Hale does not appear in the report, as we did not find clear evidence of extremism," an ADL spokesman told the Signal.

"Hale left some writings, not released by police, that they described as lacking any specific political or social issues," added the spokesman. "Three pages of a document were later leaked that contained hateful epithets directed at white and LGBTQ+ people, which did not provide evidence of any particular extremist ideology, but rather primarily resentment and grievance at students from the shooter's former school perceived to be better off than the shooter was."

The ADL spokesman suggested that its assessment might change if "additional information comes to light."

"If additional evidence is subsequently revealed for a specific murder that confirms an extremist tie, such a murder would be added to the statistics at that time," continued the spokesman. "Our statistics are regularly updated to include new findings."

The ADL previously made reference to the Covenant School shooting when it suited the organization's preferred narrative.

In the aftermath of the massacre last year, the ADL raised the alarm — about "anti-transgender rhetoric" on 4chan and .win forums. The leftist grrup warned that "this sort of hate doesn't just stay online. It can inspire offline violence."

While the motive of the Nashville shooter remains unknown, unfounded claims that the incident was rooted in gender identity have been weaponized. This rise in anti-transgender hate must be taken seriously.
— (@)

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FACT CHECK: No, The ADL Has Not Classified Cement Truck As An Antisemitic Hate Symbol

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Wisconsin Professor Pushes Antisemitic Petition Under The Guise Of Anti-Zionism

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Leftists seethe after ADL caves, removes Libs of TikTok from its extremism glossary



Leftists are enraged by the Anti-Defamation League's decision Friday to de-list the woman behind the Libs of TikTok from its "Glossary of Extremism."

Until late last week, the ADL had listed Chaya Raichik, an Orthodox Jewish children's book author, in its glossary along with various Nazi organizations, mass-murdering terrorist groups like Hamas and ISIS, and the Ku Klux Klan. Raichik announced she would no longer stand for it, telling the leftist outfit that it had until Oct. 31 "to remove this defamatory entry" before she would take action.

The ADL blinked.

What's the background?

Raichik, a former Brooklyn real estate agent, started the social media account Libs of TikTok in 2020, showcasing the ideological capture and radicalism of various activists in the West, particularly child-facing LGBT propagandists. She now has over 2.6 million followers on X.

For drawing attention to the efforts by teachers and others to sexualize children, Raichik drew the ire of non-straight activists and their champions in the establishment press.

Ari Drennen, LGBT program director at Media Matters, was among the many who bemoaned the efficacy of Libs of Tiktok, noting it has "been shaping public policy in a real way, and affecting teachers' ability to feel safe in their classrooms. ... Libs of TikTok is shaping our entire political conversation about the rights of LGBTQ people to participate in society."

Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz doxxed Raichik in April 2022, framing her as a threat to the LGBT agenda.

Although Raichik subsequently faced an onslaught of hate and apparent death threats from the usual suspects, she held her ground and continued posting both as Libs of TikTok and as herself — with assurance from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that she and her family could always find refuge in the governor's mansion if things get dicey.

Just as Raichik doubled down on her efforts, so did her critics, keen to present her work as threatening to the point of being terroristic.

Harvard Kennedy School professor Juliette Kayyem, a supposed expert on terrorism who served as the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the Obama administration, cited Raichik as an example of a "stochastic terroris[t]."

The ADL joined the effort to ostracize Raichik and neutralize her reportage, allegedly "push[ing] hard" for X to shut down her account. In September 2022, it added Raichik to its "Glossary of Extremism.

The entry stated, "Libs of TikTok is a popular anti-LGBTQ+ twitter account operated by former real estate agent Chaya Raichik. The account, which has over 1.3 million followers as of August 2022, attempts to generate outrage and stoke anti-LGBT+ hostility by reposting selected out-of-context social media content created by LGBTQ+ people and liberals."

"The individuals, events and organizations targeted by the account are frequent targets of harassment, threats and violence," continued the post.

Raichik wrote a year later in Human Events, "The truth is that the ADL no longer stands for Jewish interests. They have increasingly become just a pathetic propaganda arm for the radical left. ... The ADL are just massive bullies who have way too much power. They are not about anti-defamation. They are only anti defamation as long as you go along with their far-left viewpoints. If you disagree with them, they will defame you."

The ADL caves

On Oct. 24, Raichik posted on X, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I'm calling on the @ADL to immediately remove my name from their 'Glossary of Extremism.' Not only have they defamed me, they also lumped me in with terrorist organizations like Hamas. They have until Oct. 31st to remove this defamatory entry before I'm forced to take more action."

In the post, Raichik also tagged the CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt.

The next day, the Advocate reported that an ADL spokesman had acknowledged Raichik's "demands and are investigating."

Highlighting this response, Raichik noted on X, "The clock is ticking!"

The ADL came in under the wire, capitulating on Friday.

Steven Sheinberg, the chief legal officer at the ADL, reportedly told Raichik over X, "I understand that you have expressed concerns about your inclusion in the ADL Glossary of Extremism and have threatened legal action. ... As a preliminary matter, we disagree with your assertions that ADL has done anything defamatory or otherwise harmful to you. Our reporting and opinions are constitutionally protected, reflect your status as a public figure and are accurate."

"At the same time, we are not immune to criticism of our work, and take such feedback into consideration," continued Sheinberg. "Indeed, the Glossary of Extremism is an evolving resource and one we are presently reviewing in terms of brand, substance, and function including examining the mechanics of how materials are recommended to users. As a result, we will temporarily remove Libs of TikTok from the Glossary."

"This is not an endorsement of your body of writing and other material reflective of your odious views about, and harmful impact to, the LGBTQ+ community remain on the ADL website," he added.

Raichik celebrated the win on X, writing, "The ADL finally caved after immense pressure and threats of legal action and REMOVED my name from their Glossary of Extremism!"

She added, "Just goes to show that the ADL knows I'm not a violent extremist. The decision to put me on their 'Glossary of Extremism' was all political theater. They're a propaganda tool of the radical Left and they went too far with this."

An ADL spokesman confirmed the removal to the Advocate, stating, "While we maintain any potential litigation is meritless, we have temporarily removed the entry from our Glossary of Extremism while we continue to review the matter. Other material reflective of Libs of TikTok’s odious views about, and harmful impact to, the LGBTQ+ community remain on the ADL website."

While Raichik is no longer listed in the glossary, the ADL still claims that Libs of TikTok "is an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist social media account run by Chaya Raichik" in a January 2023 blog post on its website.

Alejandra Caraballo, a radical transvestite and Harvard Law School clinical instructor who testified before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in December, wrote on X, "The @ADL are a bunch of f**king cowards caving to this terrorist," reported LGBTQNation.

"They just set an example that any extremist can just publicly threaten them and they’ll cave like cowards. It will completely undermine the credibility and legitimacy of their work on tracking and documenting extremism," continued Caraballo.

Trans activist Alejandra Caraballo is seething that the ADL removed LoTT from their \u201cGlossary of Extremism.\u201d He then calls me a \u201cterrorist.\u201d \n\nThis is the same person who publicly called to \u201caccost\u201d Supreme Court Justices.\n\nCry harder Alejandro!
— (@)

LGBTQNation also appeared unable to contain its fury, accusing Raichik of "stochastic terrorism against LGBTQ+-affirming institutions, adding that her "account has echoed right-wing claims of LGBTQ+ people and allies 'indoctrinating,' 'grooming,' and 'sexualizing' kids — rhetoric that leads to violence against queer people and their allies."

Right Wing Cope, a popular anti-conservative and pro-LGBT account on X, and various others havedenounced the ADL for "absolutely cowardly behavior."

Raichik's first major television interview after being doxxed was with Tucker Carlson, whom she told, "The LGBTQ community has become this cult and it's so captivating, and it pulls people in so strongly, unlike anything we've ever seen. ... And they brainwash people to join and they convince them of all of these things, and it's really, really hard to get out of it.”

Libs of TikTok founder reveals her identity to Tuckeryoutu.be

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The ideal enemy



Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, recently tried to explain the present upsurge of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment in the United State as the work of “white supremacists and the alt-right ilk who kill Jews.” Being a careful observer of what’s going on politically, I’ve noticed multitudes of “anti-Zionists on the left.” But I haven’t seen all of those “white supremacists” whom the ADL dreads at anti-Israeli and in some cases anti-Jewish demonstrations. In my region of south-central Pennsylvania, which abounds with evangelical Christians, I am struck by the outpouring of intense pro-Israeli sentiment from these pious residents. The same generous sentiment came through in an announcement by the fundamentalist Christians Franklin Graham and John Hagee, pledging devotion to the Israeli cause.

Perhaps the ADL and other left-wing Jewish organizations inhabit a different world from mine. But in the one in which I reside, the Christian right is not an enemy but a friend of the Israelis. For the very sizable Jewish left, however, devout Christians in nonurban areas remain the enemies, while Black Lives Matter, NPR, and LGBTQ+ and other alphabet people are allies against a ubiquitous Christian conservative adversary.

While reality doesn’t fit the liberal Jewish narrative, a predictable response has been to invent a story that suits people’s emotional needs. The Central Committee for Jews in Germany, which shares the political and cultural outlook of our ADL, is trying hard to ban the Alternative für Deutschland, the only non-woke, non-leftist national party in Germany. The Central Committee’s leadership is enraged that the AFD is calling for restricting the influx of Muslim migrants into Germany. Although the migrants have been attacking Jews on the streets of German cities, the Central Committee’s director expresses fervent solidarity with the antifascist newcomers. After all, they are the enemy of the indigenous Germans, who, according to the Committee’s understanding of reality, swarm with anti-Jewish nationalists (evidence for which seems to be lacking).

All of this got me thinking about an old notion of mine, which continues to find confirmation in current events. Carl Schmitt, the subject of much of my scholarship, was undoubtedly correct that friend-enemy relations go a long way toward explaining what Schmitt called “the Political,” that is, the most intense antagonism affecting human associations. Although we may try to restrict or institutionalize that antagonism, it sometimes erupts in brutal forms — as is now happening in the Middle East.

This belligerence sometimes expresses itself in a particularly bizarre way, for example, when we start confusing friends and foes. That is exactly what I’m now witnessing on the pro-Israel Jewish left in the United States (a category from which I’m excluding Jewish conservatives and most Orthodox Jews). These folks are driven by a deadly confusion about who is on their side and who is against them, and this confusion has become particularly problematic as they try to make the present situation confirm their stereotypes.

The facts on the ground are exactly the opposite of what liberal Jews want to believe. Older Americans, who tend to be devout Christians, are Israel’s firmest allies. Those who these leftists would like to think are their buds are mostly on the other side and generally seem pleased with Israel’s enemies and not particularly well disposed toward Jews as a group.

Yes, I know there are stock explanations for this weird behavior — e.g., that Jews instinctively side with the downtrodden and that Jews suffered under Christian tyranny and are therefore on guard about yielding any ground to conservative Christians in America.

Unfortunately, none of this stuff, which is often based on faded folk memories, makes sense any more. The left with which Jewish liberals identify are race hustlers, women who advocate late-term abortion, teachers’ unions who favor gender changes for young children, and those nuts who are trying to abolish gender distinctions altogether. The Christian persecutors whom Jewish liberals fear and lament have been dead for generations and have nothing to do with contemporary American Christians, who defend Hebrew biblical, not Nazi, morality and who have rallied to the Israeli cause.

But adherence to the ideal enemy in this case remains a powerful emotion, however much it may clash with certain facts. Daniel McCarthy has underscored in a recent New York Post column the stark choice that liberals — especially Jewish liberals — may be forced to make between Joe Biden’s bleeding southern border and American support for Israel. According to McCarthy, the more Christian and older the American, the more likely he is to favor Israel and share the philo-Semitic sentiments of Christian evangelicals. The more the country resembles what the left is trying to make it into, the less secure Jewish liberals will feel about life in America and American assistance for Israel.

Let us pose a question bluntly that Matthew Boose poses at least indirectly in Chronicles: Which should matter more to liberal Jews, a de-Christianized, less white, and younger America or the all the advantages that traditional America has offered American and Israeli Jews?

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