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Posted on 02/15/2015 11:45:31 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) – An administrative law judge in Oregon has ruled against Melissa Klein’s effort to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a lesbian couple after Klein declined to make their wedding cake because of her biblical belief that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman. A hearing in March will now determine what fines will be levied against Klein for “damages” suffered by the lesbians.
Attorneys for Klein, owner with her husband Aaron Klein of Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Gresham, Ore., had sought to have the case dismissed and to be awarded $200,000 in legal costs and damages.
But Judge Alan McCullough refused and instead issued an interim order ahead of the March hearing that says the Kleins had “unlawfully discriminated against the same-sex couple by denying them full and equal access to a place of public accommodation,” under the Oregon Equality Act, according to The Oregonian.
Paul Thompson, the attorney representing the lesbians, told The Oregonian he was happy with the ruling.
But Anna Harmon, one of three attorneys representing the Kleins, said in an email to The Oregonian that the judge’s ruling wrongly interpreted the state law, which she said protects “the right not to design and create a work of art celebrating an event which violates the tenets of [the Klein’s] religion.”
“This is a wrong and dangerous result for religious liberty and rights of conscience in Oregon,” Harmon said.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, posted a Facebook comment about the judge’s Jan. 29 ruling.
“I am outraged that today an Oregon judge ruled against Christian bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein of Sweet Cakes, who refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding,” said Rev. Graham. “Aaron and Melissa were simply living up to their convictions—they did not want to participate in the wedding ceremony based on their belief in the biblical definition of marriage.”
“[The Kleins] have been forced to move their business to their home due to harassment from gay activists, and now the fines may completely bankrupt them,” he said. “I pray that they will fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, and that we as freedom-loving Americans would stand behind them with our prayers and financial support.”
Family Research Council President tony Perkins, commenting on the Kleins’ case and other similar battles, said, “Unfortunately for the parents of five, wedding vendors like them may soon have no choice. In the free market, the courts no longer seem to recognize the right to believe what you want. Owners of small businesses like Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Arlene's Flowers, Simply Elegant Wedding Planning, Hands On Originals, and others are seen as nothing more than tools of the government to think and believe as the state sees fit. If they refuse, as Aaron and Melissa have done, Oregon is threatening to bring the full weight of the government to bear.”
This is also a violation of the 1st amendment’s freedom to peacefully assemble clause.
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At some point there must be consequences for judicial tyranny. Just saying..
There were NO damages, just buy your cake somewhere else.
My "buy American" beliefs have taken a real beating over the past six years. If it means supporting this, I will buy foreign instead.
With all due respect to mom & pop, as a consequence of both the parents of the judge and those of the attorneys representing Klein, likewise for those of the Klein’s, not making sure that their children were taught about 10th Amendment-protected state powers versus constitutionally protected rights, the Klein’s attorneys are evidently not able to use the following simple argument to protect their clients from the pro-gay activist judge.
Since the states have never amended the Constitution to expressly protect so-called gay “rights” like gay marriage, by using a state law based on a constitutionally unprotected right to trump a constitutionally enumerated protection, 1st Amendment-protected religious expression in this case, the state of Oregon is in violation of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment (14A). Section 1 prohibits the states from making policies which unreasonably abridge constitutionally enumerated rights.
Also note that regardless that constitutionally ignorant, pro-gay activist judges hide behind 14A's Equal Protections clause to attack the Christian faith by legislating gay “rights” from the bench, the Supreme Court had clarified in Minor v. Happersett that 14A added no new protections to the the Constitution. It only strengthens those protections which the states have amended the Constitution to expressly protect.
“3. The right of suffrage was not necessarily one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that amendment does not add to these privileges and immunities. It simply furnishes additional guaranty for the protection of such as the citizen already had [emphasis added].” —Minor v. Happersett, 1874.
Again, since the states had not amended the Constitution to expressly protect gay “rights” before 14A was ratified, 14A didn’t automatically create such rights as misguided, institutionally indocrinated judges seem to be claiming.
Like rust, homofascist totalitarians never sleep.
Seems there’s more wrong with queers than just their sexual habits - they’re just mean, spiteful and vindictive people.
If now isn’t the time for resistance then it will never come.
Not sure what else to say.
Yep. This is my country and that is my constitution and NOBODY is using them against me.
If it ain’t now, then when?
I’d tell that judge to throw me to the effin lions if he wants, but I’m a Christian, and I am not going to bake a queer wedding cake!
What are the lumps on top, polyps?
Well, let’s each send the bakery $ 5. A million or so of these kind of reminders will tell the State of Oregon a lot more than yelling at the TV will. Anyone have the address of Melissa Klein’s bakery?
I lived there for four years in the late 70's & early 80's. Even then, it was a real bastion for liberals escaping California and infesting their northern neighbor with their queer filth, having already ruined California. It has only gone further left since then.
Muslim bakeries will have to provide kosher products. Can’t wait.
What would John Galt do?
ovo-vegans are not a protected class
Tolerance and compassion are traits liberals only reserve for other liberals.
His “fine” will be the emphatic support of the American people who oppose “discrimination in all forms” even if they cannot understand the meaning of “discrimination”.
Oddly though in land area OR is “conservative”, but too few people live in the eastern parts to make it competitive. So OR will be a permanent failure.
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