Mike McFall

The Supreme Court ALLEGEDLY violated Article III of the Constitution by deciding a case based on hypotheticals and a fabricated name. This goes against the principle that the Court's jurisdiction is limited to actual cases and controversies. MY THOUGHTS ARE 💭: Before you hear this story it's important you understand the powers of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court's authority is confined to resolving real and specific legal disputes. Article III of the U.S. Constitution establishes the judicial power of federal courts, emphasizing the need for actual cases and controversies. The Court does not issue advisory opinions or decide hypothetical or abstract legal questions. The requirement of a genuine case or controversy ensures that the Court's decisions have a practical impact on the rights and interests of the involved parties, allowing for concrete resolution of legal disputes. THE ISSUE AT HAND: Stewart, a web designer based in Portland, Oregon, was surprised to receive a text from a reporter informing him that a request he supposedly made in 2016 was now part of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The request involved hiring a Colorado artist to create designs and possibly a website for his same-sex wedding. However, Stewart, who has been married to a woman for 15 years, is not gay. He is an advocate for LGBTQ rights and found it frustrating to see his name being used in this context. CONTEXT: The Supreme Court recently ruled 6-to-3 in favor of a Christian graphic artist, Lorie Smith, who argued that her freedom of speech allowed her to refuse designing wedding websites for same-sex couples. Smith's case was initially filed in 2016 in a Colorado district court, where she claimed that the state's anti-discrimination law violated her rights by prohibiting her from stating on her company's webpage that she would not create wedding websites for gay couples. In the court documents, Smith's lawyers referred to a query they attributed to an individual named Stewart, matching the contact information of the person interviewed by The Washington Post. The message supposedly requested Smith's services for Stewart's upcoming wedding to someone named "Mike." The inclusion of this message played a role in the case's proceedings.