Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop has been in the national spotlight ever since he refused to bake a wedding celebration cake for a gay couple back in 2012. The couple took their complaint to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. From there, it became a lawsuit, which the plaintiffs won. Phillips and his attorneys appealed the decision and petitioned the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In June 2018, the high court ruled in favor of Phillips in a narrow decision. While the court did not specifically address problems of overall religious freedom, it did contend that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had discriminated against Phillips based on his religious beliefs.
A decision this week by the Colorado Supreme Court in another case involving Phillips and his refusal to bake a cake brought some much-needed relief.
In 2017, Colorado lawyer Autumn Scardina, a biological male, placed an order with Masterpiece Cakeshop for a pink cake with blue icing for a gender transition celebration. Phillips refused to create such a cake due to the conflict with his religious beliefs. As a result of his decision, Scardina eventually sued Phillips, seeking to make an example of him. After a lengthy time in the court system, an appeal brought the case to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Its ruling this week did not include a clear determination about the broader problem at hand. Instead, the lawsuit was “dismissed on procedural grounds.” In writing for the majority opinion, Justice Melissa Hart said, “We express no view on the merits of these claims.”
Still, it’s a reprieve for a man who has been unfairly targeted on more than one occasion.
Scardina’s motivations were underhanded from the start.
According to Alliance Defending Freedom, which has represented Phillips for more than a decade, “On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear Phillips’ first case … an attorney called Masterpiece Cakeshop requesting that Phillips create a custom cake that would symbolize and celebrate a gender transition. The attorney then called again to request another custom cake, one depicting Satan smoking marijuana, to ‘correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking.’”
“Scardina claimed that her goal in ordering the cake was to undercut Phillips’ assertion that he would still provide services for LGBTQ+ patrons,” the New York Post reported.
Unlike the original plaintiffs from 2012, Scardina wasn’t motivated by a real-life desire to celebrate. Instead, the attorney aimed to teach Phillips a lesson, make things more difficult for him, and brand him as hateful toward the LGBT community. While the Colorado Supreme Court decision did not decide the case on its merits, it was not a win for Scardina, and that, in itself, is a victory.
The concluding paragraph in the ADF press release on the matter summed it up clearly.
“Phillips politely declined both requests because the cakes express messages that violate his core beliefs. The attorney then filed the most recent lawsuit, threatening to continue harassing Phillips until he is punished. Phillips serves people from all backgrounds. Like many artists, he decides to create custom cakes based on what they will express, not who requests them,” the press release said.
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The harassment Phillips has received is nothing but an ambush by the thought police. Phillips specifically refused to create cakes based on the message he would have to produce, not because of the customer behind the order. That is quite different than refusing to make cakes because the person on the phone or standing before him might also be gay or transgender. Phillips and any other religious people in the United States should feel freedom to express their own beliefs within their chosen fields. Phillips’s actions are not hateful, no matter the media narrative.
The attitudes that led to more than a decade of persecution are not going anywhere. The desire to punish differing opinions with legal action is not the product of a tolerant group. Hopefully, the victories, albeit narrow, will finally prevent future assaults on Phillips’s religious liberty and his business. As for the Coloradans who still don’t like him? They can choose another bakery.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter.