And the saga of gay wedding cakes continues…
On Monday, the Supreme Court punted another such case back down the hill to a lower court.
As a map, the court’ll have the previous goings-on of the famed Masterpiece Cakeshop decision.
In short, SCOTUS ruled in 2018 that Masterpiece proprietor Jack Phillips’s religious beliefs were treated with contempt by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission…
Let’s stop for a moment. This is where we are in the political realm: An organization calling itself a “civil rights commission” can be found to have violated someone’s civil rights.
Geez Louise.
Anyway, essentially, the nation’s highest court said the CCRC was crappy to Jack and targeted him unduly. However, the ruling wasn’t so definitive as to provide a solid precedent for other cases.
The court concluded, “The Commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion.”
Furthermore:
“Phillips was entitled to a neutral decisionmaker who would give full and fair consideration to his religious objection as he sought to assert it in all of the circumstances in which this case was presented, considered, and decided.”
And unfortunately:
“The outcome of cases like this in other circumstances must await further elaboration in the court.”
For more on Masterpiece and Jack’s ongoing troubles, check out my coverage here, here, here, and here.
As for Monday, as reported by Fox News:
The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a ruling against two Oregon bakers who refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. The couple, Melissa and Aaron Klein, cited religious beliefs as their reason for not providing services for a gay wedding.
Now a court will be tasked with determining whether Melissa and Aaron Klein were also persecuted for their religion when Oregon fined them $135,000 for discrimination against a lesbian couple over their cake.
As noted by The Daily Wire:
If a similar case out of Washington provides any indication, the lower court might rule that the Kleins were treated impartially by the Oregon justice system, forcing the couple to continue fighting for a definitive ruling by the Supreme Court.
First Liberty Institute, which is representing the Kleins, sees the SCOTUS move as a good thing:
“This is a victory for Aaron and Melissa Klein and for religious liberty for all Americans. The Constitution protects speech, popular or not, from condemnation by the government. The message from the Court is clear, government hostility toward religious Americans will not be tolerated.”
Despite the characterization of such cases by some on the left side of the aisle, the issue isn’t one of the government being for or against homosexuality. This is an issue of liberty. Within very forgiving limits, if someone opens a business, they should have the freedom to operate in a manner consistent with their beliefs. That goes for whether it’s about gay marriage or any other thing. The same principle would apply if an anti-religious lesbian couple started a bakery and wouldn’t make cakes celebrating religion. That should be their prerogative, in my view. It’s their business; let them decide what they make.
Just my opinion.
Stay tuned for more.
-ALEX
Relevant RedState links in this article: here, here, here, and here..
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