Everything You Need to Know About the Embattled 71-Year-Old Christian Florist Who Refused to Make Gay Wedding Arrangements

A Christian florist who was sued and found guilty of discrimination after refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding is continuing her fight for a religious accommodation, with the Washington Supreme Court recently agreeing to hear her case.

So, what's the legal battle all about?

In essence, it's yet another effort to strike a balance between the rights of religious wedding vendors and those of gays and lesbians seeking out said services. From scenarios involving bakers to photographers to florists, these legal conundrums continue to unfold and seem to be ramping up in the wake of the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage across the nation last year.

Attorneys for Barronelle Stutzman, the 71-year-old owner of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, plan to argue that the florist's right to decline making arrangements for gay weddings and to, thus, live out her Christian values are "robust" at both the state and federal level.

But members of the opposition — which include Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the American Civil Liberties Union — believe that this is an incorrect stance, using the U.S. Supreme Court's gay marriage case as well as non-discrimination laws in an effort to argue against exceptions for Stutzman, World Magazine reported.

Kristen Waggoner, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, told the outlet that cases like Stutzman's are going to have a profound impact on everyone, pending how they turn out in the courts.

"It does not matter what you think about marriage," she said. "The way these cases come out will affect you."

In the law firm's official appeal, the Alliance Defending Freedom warned that a decision finding "that there can never be a free speech exception to public accommodation laws — endangers everyone."

As TheBlaze previously reported, the case against Stutzman has been forging on for three years now, as she was first sued by Ferguson in 2013 after she cited her Christian faith in declining to make floral arrangements for longtime client Robert Ingersoll's same-sex wedding.

In Feb. 2015, Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom found that Stutzman violated Washington’s Law Against Discrimination and Consumer Protection Act when she declined to provide service to Ingersoll and his partner, Curt Freed.

Ekstrom granted a summary judgement, ruling that Stutzman must provide the same services to same-sex couples as she does to opposite-sex couples. The state subsequently offered a settlement in which Waggoner would only need to pay a $2,000 fine and $1 in legal fees and commit to offering flowers for gay and straight weddings, alike, if she continued providing matrimony services, the Daily Mail reported.