“The underlying constitutional question this case raises has become the focus of intense public debate: How should the government balance the rights of transgender individuals to be free from discrimination in places of public accommodation with the rights of religious business owners when they are operating in the public market?” Justice Melissa Hart wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
The Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed another lawsuit against Masterpiece Cakeshop and its controversial owner, Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who has repeatedly made headlines for refusing to provide his services to prospective gay, lesbian, and transgender customers.
According to FOX News, the Supreme Court’s latest decision relates to a claim filed on behalf of a transgender attorney who had asked Masterpiece Cakeshop to bake a custom cake celebrating their gender transition. At the time of its filing, the lawsuit was panned by conservative media, which posited the complaint as an obvious and bad-faith attempt to penalize Phillips for his conventional views on gender and sex.
Phillips was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the same right-wing legal group that first defended him in 2012.
“Enough is enough,” said ADF senior counsel Jack Warner. “Jack has been dragged through the courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone.”
“Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in 303 Creative, the government cannot force artists to express messages they don’t believe,” Warner said. “In this case, an attorney demanded that Jack create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female. Because that cake admittedly expresses a message, and because Jack cannot express that message for anyone, the government cannot punish Jack for declining to express it.”
“The First Amendment,” Warner said, “protects that decision.”
However, FOX News notes that the state Supreme Court’s decision didn’t actually address Phillips’ First Amendment rights. Instead, the panel found that plaintiff Autumn Scardina had failed to properly file the lawsuit in Colorado.
“We granted review to determine, among other issues, whether [Plaintiff] properly filed [this] case,” the justices wrote in their opinion. “We conclude that [Plaintiff] did not.”
“The underlying constitutional question this case raises has become the focus of intense public debate: How should the government balance the rights of transgender individuals to be free from discrimination in places of public accommodation with the rights of religious business owners when they are operating in the public market?” Justice Melissa Hart wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
“We cannot answer that question,” Hart said.
Justice Richard Gabriel, though, dissented. In his opinion, Gabriel indicated discomfort with how the court’s majority opinion “throws Scardina completely out of court.”
“I am concerned that Masterpiece and Phillips will construe today’s ruling as a vindication of their refusal to sell non-expressive products with no intrinsic meaning to customers who are members of a protected class,” Gabriel wrote.
Sources
Colorado court dismisses suit against baker who wouldn’t make transgender-themed cake
Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against Christian baker who refused to bake trans cake
Colorado’s Supreme Court dismisses suit against baker who wouldn’t make a cake for transgender woman
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