Wedding photographer’s free speech battle settled for $800K

A wedding photographer's yearslong legal battle was settled by the city of Louisville, Ky. Tuesday. The city agreed to pay $800,000 of attorneys’ fees for violating the First Amendment rights of Chelsey Nelson. She sued the city in 2019 after a Louisville anti-discrimination law threatened to slap severe civil penalties and damages on business owners who didn’t provide services for same-sex weddings. In September, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled that the city’s law burdened Nelson’s speech, or freedom of expression. The court barred Louisville from enforcing its law against her.

The government can’t force Americans to promote views that go against their religious beliefs, said Bryan Neihart, an attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Nelson. The settlement taught Louisville that violating the Constitution can be expensive, Neihart added.

How did Louisville’s law affect Nelson? The law had threatened to prohibit Nelson from denying services to same-sex couples. The law also sought to block her from posting any explanation on her website about why she didn’t offer such services. Nelson said that photographing same-sex weddings would go against her convictions as a Christian.

What victories does this settlement build on? Nelson’s court win bolstered the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, according to Alliance Defending Freedom. The high court held in that case that Colorado couldn’t enforce a similar law against a Christian web designer who made wedding sites.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Nelson’s sweeping victory in federal court.