The city of Louisville, Kentucky, has agreed to pay $800,000 in attorney fees as part of a settlement with a Christian photographer after years of litigation over a nondiscrimination provision in a local law she was concerned would make her violate her faith.
“I am thrilled to see this case come to a close and celebrate that free speech is for everyone and the government cannot force you to create anything you don’t believe in,” Chelsey Nelson, an Alliance Defending Freedom client and Louisville-based photographer, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Artists like me should have the right to decide what messages we express,” Nelson added. “You shouldn’t lose your freedom of speech when you choose to make a living. I am grateful that I can continue photographing and creating consistent with my religious beliefs and ensure that all artists in Louisville can do the same.”
The settlement, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division, follows a Sept. 30, 2025, ruling in which the court sided with Nelson over a prohibition from the city of Louisville on discrimination.
In the September ruling, the court cited 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which said that a Colorado website designer’s First Amendment rights permit her to refuse to make custom wedding websites for couples of the same sex.
“That 2023 decision confirmed this Court’s 2022 interpretation of the First Amendment to bar the City of Louisville from enforcing an ordinance prohibiting wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson from stating her traditional (now dissenting) views on traditional marriage or declining to participate in those ceremonies,” the September ruling said.
THE US GOVERNMENT TARGETED ME FOR MY POLITICAL SPEECH. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, TOO
“These disputes, no less than those from earlier but equally fraught moments in our nation’s history, posed profound questions about the meaning of speech, the government’s authority to demand as well as forbid expression, and the tension in a system of ordered liberty between the common good and individual freedom.”
Tuesday’s settlement was announced by Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Nelson and filed the lawsuit, Chelsey Nelson Photography v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government in 2019.
“Louisville’s law threatened to compel Nelson to create photographs and blogs celebrating a message about marriage she does not believe and prohibited her from expressing her views on marriage on her studio’s website,” according to the legal group.
“The government cannot force Americans to say things they don’t believe,” Bryan Neihart, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement.
“For almost six years, Louisville officials tried to do just that by threatening to force Chelsey to promote views about marriage that violated her religious beliefs,” Neihart added. “Louisville’s threats contradicted bedrock First Amendment principles which leave decisions about what to say with the people, not the government. This settlement should teach Louisville that violating the U.S. Constitution can be expensive.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg for comment.
