The U. S. Supreme Court is Coming to a Town Near You
The 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis majority opinion has just created the circumstance to discriminate freely, even here
I grew up when the Depression was still in the air. Mothers made their children’s birthday party decorations out of pipe cleaners and crepe paper, and dads brought home free orange crates from the grocery store to use for bookshelves.
My parents’ creativity went beyond our family. She was a professional actress in Pittsburgh; he was an artist.
They also published children’s books; and they wrote the script and music for the Somerset, PA, 1954 Sesquicentennial Pageant, and directed it. Vice President Nixon came to open the celebrations. I was in pigtails.
My family was always making holiday cards, chalkboard pictures, little inventions, funny notes, puppet shows, and costumes.
I learned that when you have an idea, you put it into paper, paint, paper maché or fabric. If it calls for a crew, you recruit other kids to put it on.
But until today, I didn’t fully realize that my heedless, blissful way of expressing an idea was part of a larger trend in America. Today I checked out a book from the library, The Cult of Creativity: A Surprisingly Recent History.
The blurb in The New York Review of Books says,
The concept of creativity gained much of its cultural currency in the mid-20th century, when executives tried to stimulate creativity in hopes of churning out better ads and new technologies. With these titans’ encouragement, Americans began to see creativity as a virtuous end in itself.
Today, seventy years later, we accept that this theory of creativity applies to every job you can imagine, from designing high tech to running the local sanitation department.
It happens that I’ve also checked out John Cleese’s charming book, Creativity: A short and cheerful guide.
He writes,
Most people think of creativity as being entirely about the arts — music, painting, theatre, movies, dancing, sculpture, etc., etc.
But this simply isn’t so. Creativity can be seen in every area of life — in science, or in business, or in sport.
Wherever you can find a way of doing things that is better than what has been done before, you are being creative. … Anyone can be creative.
However —
I’m concerned that when artistic creativity becomes available to everyone under the more general name of "creativity”, it escapes its boundaries. Let me explain.
Traditionally an audience knows that “it’s just a play”, and when the house lights come up at the end we return to real life. For example, you understand that Arthur Miller in his 1953 play The Crucible, is expressing an idea. He’s exploring what can happen when religion and the state act together.
But now in 2023 in real life, for example, when a business person expresses their idea about gender (and religion in this case) by refusing to create a website for a same-sex couple, we’re in dangerous territory.
It’s called discrimination.
The U. S. Supreme Court recently approved this case by a vote of 6 to 3. In 303 Creative v. Elenis, Justice Gorsuch’s majority opinion allowed Lorie Smith to refuse to make a website for a same-sex couple because she opposes their relationship.
Gorsuch compared Smith’s right to refuse, to the same artistic right of “speechwriters, painters and film directors. … She’s a creative professional.”
Since anyone now can claim to be “a creative professional” in some way, the six U. S. Supreme Court Justices seem to have opened the door to legally sanctioned discrimination in America.
I can’t influence the Supreme Court but in my little town, if I hear someone’s expressive message that I oppose, I hope I can speak out against it.
Deeda, you nailed it here on every front.
Thank you!
Thank you, Deda. I appreciate your creativity that you shared with the many children of Slidell, LA when our children were growing up. We are better for it.