Christian print shop prevails in court

An LGBT group did not have a right to sue Blaine Adamson, owner of Hands On Originals print shop, for declining to print messages that violated his religious beliefs, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday. “Hands On was in good faith objecting to the message it was being asked to disseminate,” Justice David Buckingham wrote in the decision.

What was at stake in the case? The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization asked Adamson’s shop in Lexington, Ky., to make promotional T-shirts for a pride festival in 2012. When he declined, the group filed a complaint with the county’s Human Rights Commission. The commission said Adamson must set aside his faith and print the shirts. But all three levels of the state court system disagreed and ruled in Adamson’s favor.

Dig deeper: Read Steve West’s report in Liberties on the oral arguments in the case.