Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips, who won a Supreme Court case in June, is once again being harangued by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission for refusing to bake a cake with a pro-LGBTQ message. Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday night against the commission on his behalf, over the state’s second attempt to compel him to bake a cake with a message that violates his religious beliefs.
Two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Phillips ought not to have been forced to bake a cake with a pro-LGBT message for a same-sex couple’s wedding, because the court found that the commission was overtly hostile to the baker’s religious beliefs.
Now, the commission is once again going after Phillips, this time to compel him to bake a cake celebrating a “gender transition.”
On June 26, 2017 — the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take up the cake baking case — an attorney, who is identified in the court filings as Autumn Scardina, asked Phillips to bake a cake that is blue on the outside and pink on the inside to celebrate his decision to live as if he were a woman. When Phillips declined, Scardina filed a complaint with the commission that July, alleging that he was unlawfully discriminated against.
Just weeks after Philip’s victory at the Supreme Court, the commission issued a probable cause determination, stating that there was enough evidence to back up Scardina’s claim that Phillips had broken the law by declining the order for the custom cake.
Phillips is not backing down. He’s suing the commission for violating his constitutional right to live out his religious beliefs and his right to due process under the law.
“The state of Colorado is ignoring the message of the U.S. Supreme Court by continuing to single out Jack for punishment and to exhibit hostility toward his religious beliefs,” ADF’s Kristen Waggoner said in a statement. “Even though Jack serves all customers and simply declines to create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in violation of his deeply held beliefs, the government is intent on destroying him — something the Supreme Court has already told it not to do. Neither Jack nor any other creative professionals should be targeted by the government for living consistently with their religious beliefs.”
You can read more about his story here and details about the ongoing lawsuit here.