Posted by Tyquasia Yeshaya Bender.
I came across a case that interested me. A woman named Elaine Huguenin, who is photographer in the state of New Mexico, declined to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. Her reason for declining the job was due to her religious beliefs. Photographing the event would have went against her religious beliefs about same sex marriage. Because of this, the couple from the ceremony filed a discrimination complaint against Elaine Huguenin’s business, Elane Photography. The business is also co-owned with her husband, Jonathan. However, on August 22, 2013, the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Human Rights Commission both ruled against Elane Photography. On November 8th, 2013, the business then turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to review its case.
Elaine and and her husband Jonathan Huguenin are Christians. According to the their business policy, “The Huguenins will not create images that tell stories or convey messages contrary to their religious beliefs. For this reason, they have declined requests for nude maternity pictures and photographs portraying violence.” Elane Photography explains that the Huguenins have a “sincere religious belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.” In addition, the Huguenins believe that “if they were to communicate a contrary message about marriage—by, for example, telling the story of a polygamous wedding ceremony—they would be disobeying God.” For these reasons and beliefs, Elaine declined the job.
This story started in 2006, when a woman named Vanessa Willock inquired whether Elane Photography would be willing to photograph her commitment ceremony, which happened to be same-sex. At the time, same-sex individuals were not permitted to marry in the state of New Mexico. However, the law has changed since then. The Huguenins’ business declined the request because “they did not want to create images expressing messages about marriage that conflict with their religious beliefs,” as stated before. Elane Photography has explained that it “does not refuse customers because of their sexual orientation” and the Huguenins will “gladly serve gays and lesbians—by, for example, providing them with portrait photography—whenever doing so would not require them to create expression conveying messages that conflict with their religious beliefs.”
Vanessa Willock filed an administrative complaint alleging that Elane Photography had violated the state public accommodations statute by discriminating based on sexual orientation. The complaint resulted in proceedings before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission, which ruled against Elane Photography.
The First Amendment states that the government may neither establish any religion nor prohibit the free exercise of religious practices. The first part of the amendment is the Establishment Clause and the second part is the Free Exercise Clause. The Establishment Clause is the provision in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits Congress from creating any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” The Free Exercise Clause is the provision in the First Amendment preventing Congress from making any law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. (Cross, F., & Miller, R. (2015). Chapter 5: Business and the Constitution. In The Legal Environment of Business Text and Cases (9th ed., p. 643). Canada: Cengage Learning).
If the U.S. Supreme Court rules on Elane Photography’s free speech claim it may allow the Huguenins to operate their photography business without violating their religious beliefs about marriage.
Tyquasia is a business administration and retail management major at Montclair State University, Class of 2016/2017.