WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's Supreme Court ruled Thursday against a print shop employee who refused to print banners for an LGBT business group because he did not want to "promote" the gay rights movement.

The country's top court said it was upholding the ruling of a lower court. The Regional Court in Lodz had argued the principle of equality before the law meant the printer did not have the right to withhold services from the LGBT Business Forum.

The case was brought to the Supreme Court by Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister and attorney general, who slammed Thursday's ruling as "against freedom."

"The Supreme Court has stood on the side of state violence in the service of the ideology of homosexual activists," Ziobro said.

The Campaign Against Homophobia, which gave legal support to the LGBT Business Forum, welcomed the ruling.

The decision comes as the European Union has been warning that Poland's judicial independence is under threat due to new laws that give the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, greater power over court appointments.

A new law regulating the Supreme Court will take effect July 3 and it's not clear if the court will be as free in the future to make rulings against positions supported by the government. Read more via Herald-Whig