Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, appealed to the state’s highest court in April after the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against him in a case involving a man who “transitioned,” claiming that Phillips violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA).
A lawyer calling himself Autumn Scardina sued Phillips after he declined to use his artistic talents to make a custom “transition” cake. Phillips, a Christian, was in the middle of a different case when the man sued him.
Phillips said that he doesn’t make custom Halloween cakes, either, but he serves everyone, and any customer can choose any ready-made cake. But he does not make custom cakes for services or events that violate his religious beliefs.
Phillips won at the U.S. Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) after the commission ruled that he violated CADA when he declined to use his artistic talents to make a custom cake for a homosexual “wedding.” The court ruled 7-2 that the commission violated the Free Exercise Clause and was hostile to Phillips’s religious views.
Scardina, a pest who has continued to harass Phillips, filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which dismissed the complaint. The man filed a lawsuit against Phillips, and the court ruled against him.
Alliance Defending Freedom, the baker’s legal counsel, announced that the Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear his case:
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis that upheld free speech for all, ADF attorneys filed a supplemental notice with the Colorado Supreme Court asking it to apply that ruling and similarly affirm Phillips’ free speech rights in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina. An activist attorney and Colorado officials have misused the same state law that was at issue in 303 Creative to punish Phillips for more than a decade.
In 303 Creative, web designer Lorie Smith filed a pre-enforcement lawsuit against Colorado to stop enforcement of CADA, the same law that ensnared Phillips. The high court ruled that applying CADA to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause.
The Supreme Court protected the rights of Phillips. Let’s hope a state supreme court will do the same.
