After Jessica Ahlquist, unabashed teenage atheist and crusader against bullshit, successfully sued her Rhode Island high school to take its prayer mural taken down last January, we hoped that she’d be able to take her $40,000 scholarship and ride off triumphantly into college sunset, confident that she’d be equipped to handle any religious hand-wringing she might meet later in her life. Unfortunately, the flower peddlers in Cranston, Rhode Island are not just famous for their peonies (although I’m sure those are lovely) — they’re also earning renown for their ability to nurse a grudge.
The Providence Journal reports that the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s attempt to send some congratulatory flowers to Ahlquist was thwarted by a Cranston florist named Marina Plowman, who refused to send a dozen red roses to Ahlquist because some people are still irked by her willingess to, you know, insist that Cranston High School West continue to recognize the reasonable separation between church and state.
By way of riposte, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has sued Plowman, claiming that, by refusing to take its order, Plowman was denying the Foundation access to “public accommodations.”
Cranston florist sued for refusing to deliver flowers to Jessica Alhquist [Providence Journal]