Virginia Photographer Fights $50K Fine for Practicing His Religion

[PeteS in CA]

Virginia Photographer Fights $50K Fine for Practicing His Religion

https://pjmedia.com/culture/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/01/virginia-photographer-fights-50k-fine-for-practicing-his-religion-n596506

A Christian wedding photographer and blogger in Virginia filed suit against Attorney General Mark Herring (D-Va.), seeking to prevent the enforcement of a new non-discrimination law that its Democrat supporters admitted was intended to be “punitive” against those who decline to celebrate same-sex weddings. The law presents the photographer with an impossible choice: violate his conscience, close down his business, or face a $50,000 fine for the first offense and $100,000 fines for each later offense.

Chris Herring, owner of Chris Herring Photography, filed the pre-enforcement lawsuit on Tuesday before the law came into effect on Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the Virginia Values Act — which Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed on the Saturday before Easter during a pandemic — violates Chris Herring’s rights to free speech, free association, freedom of the press, religious liberty, and the Constitution’s ban on a government establishment of religion.

“It isn’t the state’s job to tell me what I must capture on film or publish on my website,” Chris Herring said in a statement on the lawsuit. “My religious beliefs influence every aspect of my life, including the stories I tell through my photography. If you’re looking for someone to photograph a red-light district or promote drug tourism, I’m not your guy. Now Virginia is trying to intimidate creative professionals like me to change some of my other religious beliefs.”

Yet another example of why the SPLC has labeled the Alliance Defense Fund a "Hate Group" . One interesting possible aspect is that by now it is well known that many who refuse to participate in same-sex weddings - cakes, flowers, photography, videography - do so because of their religious beliefs and actions. That means that this law is knowingly targeting certain kinds of religious people, obvious Free Exercise and Establishment clause violations.