The Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli recently weighed in on the Supreme Court’s decision regarding forcing website designers to create content against their religious belief by declaring a wish “to forbid bigots and homophobes” from watching his work.
First brought before the court on December 5th, 2022 and receiving a ruling on June 30th, 2023, the 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis case centered around the concern of Christian web designer and 303 Creative proprietor Lorie Smith’s concern that, in seeking to open up her business to “include services for couples seeking wedding websites”, the state of Colorado would use its “Anti-Discrimination Act to compel her—in violation of the First Amendment—to create websites celebrating marriages she does not endorse.”
As clarified by the document, Smith was “seeking an injunction to prevent the State from forcing her to create websites celebrating marriages that defy her belief that marriage should be reserved to unions between one man and one woman.”
Further, the filing also specifies that the website designer is “‘willing to work with all people regardless of classifications such as race, creed, sexual orientation, and gender,’ and ‘will gladly create custom graphics and websites’ for clients of any sexual orientation,'” but did not wish to produce websites relating not just to gay marriage, but any “content that ‘contradicts biblical truth’ regardless of who orders it.”
“Ms. Smith’s belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman is a sincerely held conviction,” the document declares, noting that Smith “provides design services that are ‘expressive’ and her ‘original, customized’ creations ‘contribut[e] to the overall message’ her business conveys ‘through the websites’ it creates.”
Ultimately, the Court ruled that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution “prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” adding, “The framers designed the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to protect the ‘freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think.'”
“[T]he First Amendment protects an individual’s right to speak his mind regardless of whether the government considers his speech sensible and well intentioned or deeply ‘misguided,'” the Court continued, “and likely to cause ‘anguish’ or ‘incalculable grief.'”
In delivering the Court’s majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch warned that should the government force Smith to create content that goes against her beliefs, “Taken seriously, that principle would allow the government to force all manner of artists, speechwriters, and others whose services involve speech to speak what they do not believe on pain of penalty.”
“The government could require ‘an unwilling Muslim movie director to make a film with a Zionist message,’ or ‘an atheist muralist to accept a commission celebrating Evangelical zeal,’ so long as they would make films or murals for other members of the public with different messages,” he offered as examples of the chilling effect an opposite ruling could have on society. “Equally, the government could force a male website designer married to another man to design websites for an organization that advocates against same-sex marriage.
“Countless other creative professionals, too,” he added, “could be forced to choose between remaining silent, producing speech that violates their beliefs, or speaking their minds and incurring sanctions for doing so.”
Enter Imperioli, who in the aftermath of the decision declined to educate himself on what the actual ruling meant in favor of taking to social media to express his frustration with his own misguided interpretation of the entire situation.
“I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Goodfellas or any movie or TV show I’ve been in,” Imperioli wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post, proceeding to sarcastically declare, “Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!”
It comes as no surprise that, in his narrow-mindedness, Imperioli would omit important details of the case from his audience, as the GoodFellas actor has been pushing the same shamelessly false narrative regarding 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis that the mainstream media has feeding the public ever since the case was first accepted by the Court.
“I would like to start a religion that would allow me to discriminate against and deny services to bigots, racisrs, homophobes and narrow-minded, intolerant Americans.” Imperioli said in response to a article by CNN Supreme Court Reporter Arane de Vogue, which claimed that conservative SCOTUS Justices seemed to be siding “with website designer who doesn’t want to work with same-sex couples.”
Encouraging followers to validate his delusion, The Sopranos star added, “Anyone interested please respond here.”
Unsurprisingly, this is also far from the first time the hypocritical actor has ignorantly labeled conservatives as ‘bigots’, as in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, Imperioli called for the impeachment of Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and the aforementioned Gorsuch.
Sharing a picture of the five as featured on a protest sign, Imperioli declared his supported of murdering babies by bleating, “FASCISM. EVIL. IMPEACH THE LOT.”
Likewise, just two weeks ago, Imperioli celebrated Pride Month be declaring, “HAPPY PRIDE 2023! much love to all…stay strong, be fearless, be proud. And make sure to register to VOTE so we can get the bigots out of office.”
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