A Colorado graphic designer who creates custom websites filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Colorado law she says forces her to promote same-sex ceremonies against her religious beliefs.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Lorie Smith and her studio, 303 Creative, by Alliance Defending Freedom against members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and Aubrey Elenis, director of the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

Smith is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop the defendants from enforcing the so-called banned-speech provisions of state civil rights law, which prevents her from promoting marriage between a man and a woman exclusively by forcing her to also create websites for same-sex marriages against her beliefs.

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that banned-speech provision violates the U.S. Constitution’s free speech clause, the free press clause and the equal protection clause.

“Artists shouldn’t be threatened with punishment for disagreeing with the government’s preferred views,” said ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco. “The state must allow artists the freedom to make personal decisions about what art they can and can’t create.”

But the Rev. Amanda Henderson, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, said courts have consistently ruled that businesses open to the public should be open to everyone on the same terms.

“Nobody should be turned away from a business or denied service simply because of who they are,” she said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. “Allowing business owners to refuse service to customers whom they dislike, or disapprove, will open a can of worms and make it more difficult to enforce Colorado’s laws that ensure businesses are open to everyone.”

Henderson said providing commercial services doesn’t mean a business owner is endorsing anyone’s marriage or agreeing with everything the customer believes. It simply means they are providing services to everyone on the same terms, she said.

Officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission did not reply to a request for comment. Coffman also did not reply to request for comment.

ADF attorney Samuel Green added that all Americans including artists should be allowed to work according to their faith without fear of government punishment.

“Just because an artist creates expression that communicates one viewpoint doesn’t mean Colorado can require her to express all viewpoints,” Green said. “It’s unlawful to force an artist to create against her will and intimidate her into silence just because the government disagrees with her beliefs.”

The lawsuit is a “pre-enforcement challenge,” which allows citizens to challenge a law that threatens their rights before the government enforces it against them, an ADF news release says.

“Such lawsuits are the bread and butter of civil rights litigation, with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood routinely filing them to attack laws they oppose, sometimes even prior to the effective dates of those laws,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says that Colorado civil rights commission has a double standard when it comes to civil rights. The lawsuit says that the commission ruled that Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop declined to promote a message about marriage that the state supports. But the commission then found that three other cake artists did not violate the law when they refused to promote religious messages about marriage that Colorado opposes, the lawsuit says.

“Thus, defendants force expressive businesses to express messages supporting same-sex marriage but they allow expressive businesses to refuse to express messages opposing same-sex marriage,” the lawsuit says.

Smith and other artists who have differing views than those held by the state “simply wish to enjoy those same freedoms. Yet CADA strips plaintiffs of these freedoms,” the ADF news release says.

“That is the foundational reason for this lawsuit—to restore Plaintiffs to an equal footing with other expressive business owners in regard to their right to express messages that are consistent with their beliefs, and to avoid expressing those messages that are not,” the news release says.

The lawsuit says that as the commission interprets state law, artists are prohibited from expressing any religious views about marriage that could make someone feel, “unwelcome, objectionable, unacceptable, or undesirable,” because of their sexual orientation.

If Smith conveyed her desired message in her work or declined to convey messages that were objectionable to her, she could face fines up to $500 per violation and be forced to comply with oppressive mandates like staff re-education training to compel them to create speech that is objectionable to them, the lawsuit says.