Supreme Court won't hear case of florist who denied service for same-sex wedding

• The court's decision comes three years after it narrowly ruled that Colorado officials had not taken the religious beliefs of a baker who refused to bake a custom cake for a same-sex couple seriously enough.

The big picture: State courts ruled that Stutzman broke a Washington law that forbids businesses from discriminating on the basis of several factors, including sexual orientation.

• Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said the court should have taken the case.

What they're saying: "It is thus clear that their objection is not to any 'message' sent by the flowers themselves, but rather to the message they perceive would be sent by serving a gay couple," lawyers for the state of Washington said.

The other side: "Religious people should be free to live out their beliefs about marriage," Stutzman's lawyers said in urging the Supreme Court to hear the case, per NBC.