First, Al Franken left a black mark on Saturday Night Live, then the United States Senate, then a USO Tour.
Now Franken has blackened his own Twitter account.
And Al Franken hilariously stepped in it when he inadvertently agreed with Trump’s SCOTUS Justices.
I’m good enough, smart enough, and gosh darn, people like me
It’s a memory most Americans would like to forget – but former short-lived Saturday Night Live cast member Al Franken was once a Democrat United States Senator from Minnesota.
He was forced to resign after several accusations – along with a picture – of the not-so-funnyman kissing and groping women against their will.
Despite the serious nature of the scandal, the former Stuart Smalley went from being the joke-teller to the butt of the joke.
Franken has struggled to remain relevant ever since.
However, the disgraced former Democrat Senator just put himself back in the limelight with a single tweet – but not in the way he had hoped.
When did Franken get based?
While attempting to criticize a recent Supreme Court of the United States ruling, Franken accidentally agreed with the court’s Republican-appointed majority.
A CO woman asked me to write homophobic & anti-Semitic jokes to express her hostility to gay-marriage & Jews in general to promote her non-existent web-design business. Do I have to?
— Al Franken (@alfranken) July 5, 2023
“A CO (Colorado) woman asked me to write homophobic and anti-Semitic jokes to express her hostility to gay-marriage & Jews in general to promote her non-existent web-design business,” Franken tweeted. “Do I have to?”
As countless Twitter users bluntly pointed out to Franken, the answer is obviously, “no.”
In fact, that’s the entire point of the 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis verdict.
Al Franken accidentally tweets the holding in 303 Creative.
Frame this as one of the all time self-owns. https://t.co/M6uxUZtv1R
— Political Sock (@politicalsock) July 6, 2023
The 6-3 verdict ruled that Colorado could not force business owners to perform services that violate religious beliefs or freedom of speech.
The owner of 303 Creative web designs, Lorie Smith, wanted to make it known her new wedding website creative services would not be available for gay weddings.
However, being gay is a protected class in Colorado, therefore her religious beliefs were being violated as she would have been forced to make websites for gay weddings as well.
Going back to Franken’s faulty analogy – despite his complete misreading of the case and holding – he wouldn’t have been forced to provide services in his hypothetical scenario, as being homophobic nor antisemitic are protected classes under the law.
“Bake the cake, bigot”
The high court’s decision comes about five-years after its ruling in the case of another Colorado resident, Jack Phillips.
Phillips was a baker who refused to make a custom cake for a gay wedding due to his religious beliefs.
His business was subsequently destroyed by fines from the state for his decision.
By a vote of 7-2, the court gave Phillips a narrow victory, holding that the Colorado administrative agency that had ruled against him had treated him unfairly by being too hostile to his sincere religious beliefs.
However, the makeup of the court at the time was four conservatives, four liberals, and one swing vote – Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion.
This was before then-President Donald Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh to replace a retiring Kennedy and Amy Coney Barrett replaced a posthumous Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Justices at the time of the ruling did not determine whether or to what extent a service provider’s sincere religious beliefs might have to yield to the state’s interest in protecting the rights of same-sex couples – nor did they decide whether compelling Phillips to bake a cake for a same-sex couple would violate his right to freedom of speech.
The 303 Creative case took the extra steps the Phillips case did not.
No more compelled association
Important to note, being gay is still a protected class – however, businesses are no longer forced to participate if they don’t want to.
In short, the 303 Creative decision now means the government cannot compel you to speech or expression by association.
And to think this dude use to be a US Senator.
A Senator who apparently doesn’t understand the constitution or have the ability to read a Scotus ruling. 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️ https://t.co/AOMJcQ94FG— We are all Trolling 🤨 (@WeR_allTrolling) July 6, 2023
But in either case, Franken’s attempt at making a sarcastic jab against the Republican-appointed SCOTUS Justices failed.
It failed both at being funny and at being accurate – much like Franken’s time both at SNL and in the Upper Chamber of Congress.
