Erin Morrow Hawley, an attorney and wife of Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, is facing heated criticism after revelations that a high-profile Supreme Court case she was involved in was in part based on a falsehood.
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group. The ADF scored a big win last Friday when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a Christian web designer in Colorado was within her rights to refuse to make a wedding website for a same-sex couple, despite a state law that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Many on the right saw the decision as a win for religious freedom and free speech. Many others have called it a backtracking on gay rights. Liberal justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “The immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status.”
Website designer Lorie Smith filed suit in 2016. claiming that the Colorado law would force her to make the gay wedding website in violation of both her religion and First Amendment protections.
As the case worked its way through the courts, attorneys defending the Colorado anti-discrimination law inquired whether Smith had ever actually received a request from a same-sex couple asking her to make a website.
In court filings, Smith said that she had received such a request from an individual identified only by his first name, Stewart. But the filings contained the supposed customer's phone number and email address.
On the eve of the court's decision, a reporter for the New Republic contacted Stewart for an interview.
Of his supposed request for a website, Stewart told the magazine, "I’m not really sure where that came from." In 2016, when the request was allegedly submitted to Smith, Stewart had been married to a woman for almost a decade. He is also a web designer himself. “I wouldn’t want anybody to … make me a wedding website?” he said.
The Associated Press reported that the revelation of this fabrication is unlikely to overturn the Supreme Court's recent ruling, as the suit was brought as a "pre-enforcement challenge." This means that Smith was essentially arguing that it was hypothetically possible she could be charged with breaking the anti-discrimination law if she refused to make the website.
Josh Hawley himself said publicly he was proud of his wife for litigating the case. But revelations that her work on the case may have including submitting court documents containing false statements is now drawing condemnation for both her and the Alliance for Defending Freedom.
"Zero surprise that it was insurrection supporter Josh Hawley’s wife, Erin Hawley, who litigated the FAKE 303 Creative case in front of the Supreme Court. She’s as dishonest as her husband," wrote one attorney on Twitter.
Zero surprise that it was insurrection supporter Josh Hawley’s wife, Erin Hawley, who litigated the FAKE 303 Creative case in front of the Supreme Court. She’s as dishonest as her husband.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) July 2, 2023
The Extreme Court used the totally made up case to illegitimately strip away LGBT+ rights. pic.twitter.com/dFyNbeQ2rl
A Newsweek headline read, "Josh Hawley's Wife Faces Calls to Be Sanctioned Over Supreme Court Case."
The Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization Erin Hawley works for, was previously one of the chief legal organizations attempting to block access to mifepristone, an abortion drug. The Arizona-based organization also defended the right of adoption agencies to turn away prospective parents because they are Jewish.
The Hawleys' relationship with the organization predates Erin's current job. From 2013 to 2018, the Hawleys earned $7,800 from Alliance Defending Freedom. That includes a legal fellowship given to Josh Hawley when he was a law professor at Mizzou, which involved being paid $2,500 to give an hour-long speech in Phoenix.
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