Christian Cake Baker Supreme Court Ruling

Masterpiece Cakeshop V Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. ___ , was a case in the Supreme Court of the United States that dealt with whether owners of public accommodations can refuse certain services based on the First Amendment claims of free speech and free exercise of religion, and therefore be granted an exemption from laws ensuring non-discrimination in public accommodationsin particular, by refusing to provide creative services, such as making a custom wedding cake for the , on the basis of the owner’s religious beliefs.

Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner In Court Again For Denying Lgbtq Customer

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is in court again, this time over allegations that his business unlawfully refused service to a transgender woman who requested trans-themed birthday cake. The plaintiff, Autumn Scardina, had previously filed a complaint against Phillips with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and is now in the midst of a lawsuit at the district level.

Both actions stem from a call Scardina says she made to the Lakewood, Colorado, bakery on June 26, 2017 the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take up a separate case involving Masterpiece Cakeshops refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake. Scardina, an attorney and activist, says she tried to order a pink cake with blue frosting, but that the bakery refused her request after she explained it was intended to recognize her identity as a transgender woman, according to court documents. She alleges that a representative of the Christian bakery told her it did not make cakes for sex changes.

Uk Supreme Court Backs Bakery That Refused To Make Gay Marriage Cake

Judges find in favour of appeal, ruling there was no discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation

A Belfast bakery run by evangelical Christians was not obliged to make a cake emblazoned with the message support gay marriage, the supreme court has ruled, overturning a £500 damages award imposed on it.

The unanimous decision by the UKs highest court was greeted as a victory for free speech but condemned by gay rights groups and the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland as a backward step in combating discrimination.

Ashers had refused to produce the cake, featuring the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie, in 2014 for Gareth Lee, who supports the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. He wanted to take it to a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia.

The judgment, delivered after the supreme courts first hearing in Northern Ireland in May, reverses earlier decisions in Belfast county court and a court of appeal ruling that the company discriminated against Lee, who is gay, on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The five justices on the supreme court Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr, Lord Hodge and Lady Black found the bakery did not refuse to fulfil Lees order because of his sexual orientation and therefore there was no discrimination on those grounds. The business relationship between Lee and Ashers did not involve people being refused jobs or services because of their religious faith, the judges added.

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Colorado Civil Rights Commission

While another bakery provided a cake to the couple, Craig and Mullins filed a complaint to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission under the state’s public accommodations law, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits businesses open to the public from discriminating against their customers on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Colorado is one of twenty-one U.S. states that include sexual orientation as a protected class in their anti-discrimination laws. Craig and Mullins’s complaint resulted in a lawsuit, Craig v. Masterpiece Cakeshop. The case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs the cake shop was ordered not only to provide cakes to same-sex marriages, but to “change its company policies, provide ‘comprehensive staff training’ regarding public accommodations discrimination, and provide quarterly reports for the next two years regarding steps it has taken to come into compliance and whether it has turned away any prospective customers”.

Supreme Court Rules 7

By , PRB News

Christian Action Network news Correspondent

In a landmark ruling Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court castigated a state civil rights commission and ruled 7-2 that a bakers religious beliefs were violated.

The ruling in “Masterpiece Cake Shop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” sent a clear message to government agencies who despise Christian businessmen: the religious beliefs of merchants must be respected.

Jack Phillips, who the Supreme Court noted as “an expert baker,” refused on moral and religious grounds to design a cake for a gay couple for their wedding reception. His refusal triggered a cultural flash-fire.

On Monday, the highest court settled that flash-fire by ruling in favor of Mr. Phillips and his Masterpiece Cake Shop.

This is huge, huge huge, I mean huge, said Martin Mawyer, president of Christian Action Network. This ruling means Christians can not be ignored and disrespected. It really does work to our advantage to level the playing field going forward.

Many in the mainstream media immediately attempted to downplay the 7-2 victory, with CNN saying the court was deeply divided, while CNBC reported, “Supreme Court rules narrowly for Coloardo baker.” Neither of which was true.

A Fox journalist who attended the case hearings in December had a decidedly different take of the ruling, saying on Monday, This is a huge victory for conservatives.

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Christian Bakers Win ‘gay Cake’ Supreme Court Fight

Daniel and Amy McArthur from Ashers Baking Company told activist Gareth Lee they would not make the cake supporting gay marriage.

Wednesday 10 October 2018 15:33, UK

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The owners of a bakery did not discriminate against a customer by refusing to make a cake supporting gay marriage, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Christian couple Daniel and Amy McArthur, who run Belfast-based Ashers Baking Company, told activist Gareth Lee they would not make the cake featuring Sesame Street puppets and the logo of campaign group Queerspace.

After a long-running legal battle over whether the McArthurs broke discrimination laws, five Supreme Court justices announced their decision in London on Wednesday.

Delivering the ruling, Supreme Court president Lady Hale said the couple did not refuse to make the cake because of Mr Lee’s sexual orientation.

She said: “Their objection was to the message on the cake, not to the personal characteristics of Mr Lee or anyone else with whom he was associated.

“The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported gay marriage, but that is quite different from obliging them to supply a cake iced with a message with which they profoundly disagreed.”

Lady Hale said the ruling was not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination.

Ashers ‘gay Cake’ Row: Bakers Win Supreme Court Appeal

The Christian owners of a Northern Ireland bakery have won their appeal in the so-called “gay cake” discrimination case.

The UK’s highest court ruled that Ashers bakery’s refusal to make a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage was not discriminatory.

The five justices on the Supreme Court were unanimous in their judgement.

The high-profile dispute began in 2014 when the bakery refused to make a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.

The customer, gay rights activist Gareth Lee, sued the company for discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and political beliefs.

But the bakery has always insisted its objection was to the message on the cake, not the customer.

The legal battle – which has lasted four-and-a-half years and has cost nearly £500,000 so far – has raised questions over equality and freedom of conscience.

Ashers bakery’s general manager Daniel McArthur said he was delighted and relieved by the ruling.

“I know a lot of people will be glad to hear this ruling today, because this ruling protects freedom of speech and freedom of conscience for everyone,” Mr McArthur said outside the court.

Mr Lee said the case had made him feel like a second-class citizen and that he was now concerned about “the implications for all of the gay community”.

“To me, this was never about conscience or a statement. All I wanted to do was to order a cake in a shop,” he said.

Northern Ireland’s Attorney General John Larkin welcomed the decision.

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In Narrow Ruling Supreme Court Gives Victory To Baker Who Refused To Make Cake For Gay Wedding

WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court gave a boost to advocates of religious freedom on Monday, ruling that a Colorado baker cannot be forced to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, in a case that involved marriage equality and protection from discrimination.

But the opinion was a narrow one, applying to the specific facts of this case only. It gave no hint as to how the court might decide future cases involving florists, bakers, photographers and other business owners who have cited religious and free-speech objections when refusing to serve gay and lesbian customers in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 same-sex marriage decision.

In the 7-2 decision, the court said legal proceedings in Colorado had shown a hostility to the baker’s religious views. Monday’s ruling was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who also wrote the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision.

Similar cases are now working their way through the lower courts.

“These disputes must be resolved with tolerance, without undue disrespect to sincere religious beliefs, and without subjecting gay persons to indignities when they seek goods and services in an open market,” Kennedy wrote.

But the ruling, which came during Pride Month, gave little guidance to the lower courts about how to balance those competing interests.

In 2012, when David Mullins and Charlie Craig walked into his shop and asked him to bake a cake for a reception to celebrate their wedding, Phillips said, “I’m sorry, guys, I can’t do that.”

Supreme Court Passes On Case Involving Baker Who Refused To Make Wedding Cake For Same

The Supreme Court on Monday passed up the chance to decide whether a bakers religious objections to same-sex marriage mean she can refuse to create a wedding cake for a gay couple when state law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The case would have been a sequel to last years consideration of the same topic. The court ruled then for a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couples wedding reception, but it left undecided whether a business owners religious beliefs or free speech rights can justify refusing some services to gay people.

The Supreme Court deliberated for months about whether to take the Oregon case. The delay indicates there were behind-the-scenes negotiations, though the justices did not reveal them. Instead, they simply sent the matter back to an Oregon appeals court and told it to look again in light of the Colorado decision.

It is one of several cases around the country in which bakers, florists, photographers, calligraphers and others have said they dont want to participate in same-sex nuptials because of religious convictions. So far, courts have largely sided with the plaintiffs, saying businesses that serve the public must offer their services to all.

Last term, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy found improper religious bias by some Colorado officials against baker Jack C. Phillips. But he acknowledged the decision did not settle the larger issue.

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What Does This Mean For The Law

When Mr Lee first took action against the firm, he said the bakery’s actions left him feeling like a lesser person.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no political discrimination as well as no discrimination based on Mr Lee’s sexual orientation.

“This conclusion is not in any way to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage from discrimination,” said Lady Hale.

“It is deeply humiliating, and an affront to human dignity, to deny someone a service because of that person’s race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief.

“But that is not what happened in this case.”

Five Supreme Courts justices travelled to Belfast earlier this year to hear the case.

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But in a Thursday hearing, Phillips attorneys requested that the Denver court immediately dismiss the lawsuit. Jake Warner, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said that Scardina should have filed at the court of appeals instead of filing a new lawsuit at the district court level. Warner claimed the plaintiff wants to start the case all over and that isnt fair to Mr. Phillips.

At some point, your honor, this must stop, he said, as the legal website Courthouse News previously reported. Mr. Phillips just wants to get back to his life and make cakes.

Representatives with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that also represented Phillips in his case before the Supreme Court, said Scardinas continued pursuit of the case is intended to harass Phillips over his religious beliefs. In a statement shared with NBC News, Kristen Waggoner, senior vice president of ADFs U.S. legal division, said Phillips is being targeted because he wont create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in conflict with his conscience.

This attorneys relentless pursuit of Jack was an obvious attempt to punish him for his views, banish him from the marketplace and financially ruin him and his shop, Warner added.

But Scardina and her legal team, which did not respond to NBC News request for comment, have maintained that they simply want the law to be enforced.

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Why You Cant Sell Your Cake And Control It Too: Distinguishing Use From Design In Masterpiece Cakeshop V Colorado

by | Jul 10, 2019 | Amicus |

On June 4, 2018, the United State Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, handed down a decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The central question was whether a baker had violated Colorado state law in refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of the bakers religious objections to same-sex marriage. The state of Colorado sided with the same-sex couple and concluded that the baker had violated Colorados anti-discrimination law. The baker appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Court agreed to review his case.

Below, I attempt to make clear not only what the relevant distinctions are that Gorsuch overlooks but also how those distinctions allow for principled ways of distinguishing Masterpiece from the other three cases in a manner that respects the First Amendment. The key distinction I make is between a business owner who seeks to retain autonomy over which goods or services they offer versus a business owner who seeks to retain control over how a good or service which they have sold to a customer is used by that customer. While the bakers in the other three cases were seeking only to have a say over which items they make, the baker in Masterpiece was seeking to control how his customers use the products he makes, and by extension, which messages the customers go on to create with the products theyve purchased.

Factual Background

Gorsuchs Argument

Kind of Use Versus Kind of Design