First – Lorie Smith, a graphic designer from Colorado, wants to create custom websites and designs for couples who are getting married. However, Smith, an evangelical Christian, wants to create them only for marriages between one man and one woman. Being compelled to create websites celebrating same-sex marriages, she says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, would force her to violate her religious beliefs.

Under Colorado’s public accommodation law, businesses that offer wedding-related services for heterosexual couples must do the same for same-sex couples. If they fail to do so, the state could charge them with discrimination based on sexual orientation and impose a punishment. Rather than give up on getting into the wedding industry, Smith decided to be proactive and file what’s called a “pre-enforcement challenge” to prevent the state government from taking adverse action against her business, 303 Creative LLC.

Second – Four churches have come forward in left-leaning Massachusetts to argue their First Amendment rights trump a new state law barring discrimination against transgenders.

The churches filed a federal lawsuit this week against the Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination and its so-called “spaghetti supper” test that defines what church activities fall under the new law passed in July. The churches named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Horizon Christian Fellowship, Abundant Life Church, House of Destiny Ministries, and Faith Christian Fellowship in Haverhill.

Much like a lawsuit filed in July in Iowa, Massachusetts is using the law to claim churches fall under “public accommodation” rules that subject them to the same homosexual-friendly rules that businesses are now subjected to. The commission announced regulations in September that included “Gender Identity Guidance for Public Accommodation,” which states that churches are places of public accommodation.

Massachusetts is famous for being home to Puritan congregations in the early 1600s, who were Protestants that broke away from the Church of England and settled in New England. The Pilgrims were among the most famous of the Puritan colonists. Yet the site of the “Great Migration” from England is now considered the most liberal state in the union.