Louisville pays Christian photographer $800,000 for law requiring her to do same-sex weddings

Louisville agreed to pay Christian photographer Chelsey Nelson $800,000 in attorney’s fees after she prevailed over its public accommodations law that required her to photograph same-sex weddings if she did traditional weddings and censored her from stating “her unwillingness to do so or otherwise make same-sex couples feel ‘unwelcome.'”The settlement over attorney’s fees was reached Tuesday, more than three years after a federal court ruled the First Amendment supersedes the statute and banned the Kentucky city from “either compelling or suppressing Nelson’s photography and writing.” Six months ago the court granted summary judgment to Nelson. 
The case notably predated the Supreme Court’s landmark 303 Creative precedent that protects creative professionals such as wedding photographers and web designers against compelled participation in work that violates their conscience.
“The government cannot force Americans to say things they don’t believe” but Louisville officials spent six years “threatening to force Chelsey to promote views about marriage that violated her religious beliefs,” said her lawyer Bryan Neihart, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom.

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