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State Says Bakers Should Pay $135,000 for Refusing to Bake Cake for Same-Sex Wedding
The Daily Signal ^ | 4/24/15 | Kelsey Harkness

Posted on 04/24/2015 1:34:05 PM PDT by mykroar

An Oregon administrative law judge recommended today that the bakers who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding should be fined $135,000.

“[T]he forum concludes that $75,000 and $60,000, are appropriate awards to compensate [the same-sex couple] for the emotional suffering they experienced,” wrote Alan McCullough, administrative law judge for Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries in his proposed order.

Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa located in Gresham, Ore., say the fine is enough to potentially bankrupt their family of seven.

The dispute began in January 2013, when Aaron denied Rachel Cryer a wedding cake after learning there would be two brides in her wedding.

Aaron and his wife Melissa are both Christians and believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

Rachel and her partner Laurel Bowman-Cryer, who are now married, filed a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries under the state’s public accommodation law, which bans discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries pursued charges against the Kleins on behalf of the same-sex couple.

In January 2015, an investigation by the bureau found the Kleins guilty of violating the state’s public accommodation law by denying Rachel and Laurel full and equal access to their bakery, which the state considers a place of public accommodation.

The Civil Rights Division of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries is responsible for enforcing the state’s public accommodation law, and the judge who issued today’s proposed order works for the bureau.

In order to reach $135,000, Rachel and Laurel submitted a long list of alleged physical, emotional and mental damages they claim to have experienced as a result of the Kleins’ unlawful conduct.

One of the women, whose name was redacted to protect her privacy, listed 88 symptoms as grounds for compensation. The other, whose name was also redacted, listed 90.

Examples of symptoms include “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “felt mentally raped, dirty and shameful,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain” and “worry.”

Harmon, the Kleins’ lawyer, told The Daily Signal that during the hearing “there was no expert testimony.”

The witnesses at the hearing were the two women who were requesting a cake, one of their mothers, one of their brothers and another family member. There was no doctor, there was no psychologist, no expert testimony at all.

In collecting the fine, Harmon said the state isn’t just pursuing the Kleins’ business assets, but their personal livelihood as well.

“An important thing to understand about the damages the state is claiming in this case is that the [fine] isn’t going to come from liquidating business assets,” she said.

Their business is gone. They don’t have business assets so when we talk about [the fine], it’s personal. It means that’s money they would have used to feed their children that they can’t use anymore.

In September 2013, after facing public backlash, the Kleins had to close their bakery.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries did not respond to The Daily Signal’s multiple requests for comment.

Paul Thompson, the attorney representing the lesbians, previously said he has “a policy of not discussing cases that are the subject of open litigation.”

Aaron, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Signal on Sunday, said the state of Oregon is attempting to “obliterate” his family.

“The state is now saying that we can award damages above and beyond what you have already suffered … and they have no qualms about doing this,” he said. “It is really showing the state is taking a stance on absolutely obliterating somebody that takes a different stance than the state has.”

The recommended fine will now go to to state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, who can either accept it or adjust the amount in issuing a final order.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Indiana; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: cake; christian; homosexualagenda; indiana; lesbian; mikepence; oregon; rfra
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To: mykroar

is that an elected judge?


21 posted on 04/24/2015 1:49:41 PM PDT by GeronL (Clearly Cruz 2016)
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To: mykroar

Is this Christian family fighting this battle alone?


22 posted on 04/24/2015 1:50:34 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: mykroar

Yeah, as if a scenario like this were to ever happen.
23 posted on 04/24/2015 1:53:27 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (You call me an islamophobe like it's a bad thing.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: mykroar
That's so wacky I was not sure if it was a news item or a script for an upcoming episode of


25 posted on 04/24/2015 1:57:33 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: GeronL

Too bad the Kleins aren’t black. I’d love to sit in on that trial. Right next to the RRReeerrint Al Sharpton and his clan disrupting the hearing and calling for a boycott.


26 posted on 04/24/2015 1:58:56 PM PDT by shadeaud (Be strong when you are weak and stand up for our Constitution.)
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To: mykroar

So....can the Politicians that have been told NOT to use specific songs on the campaign trail because those Artists disagree with their positions now sue those Artists?


27 posted on 04/24/2015 2:03:22 PM PDT by Musket (It's very simple:<i>your quoted text pasted here</i><p> produces Quoted Italic with paragraph break)
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To: Jacquerie
Kristallnacht, American style.

I have been saying "Kristallnacht" for quite awhile myself.

That *IS* what is coming next.

28 posted on 04/24/2015 2:04:06 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: mykroar
Whatever happened to letting the punishment fit the crime if indeed there was even a crime committed, which is not at all likely?

It's getting damn near "tar and feathers" time...

29 posted on 04/24/2015 2:05:15 PM PDT by Gritty ('What difference does it make?' is now a far more relevant motto than 'In God We Trust'-Gregory Hood)
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To: mykroar

Filthy lying fascists.


30 posted on 04/24/2015 2:06:02 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends




LOL
PLEASE MAKE YOUR DONATION!
GO MONTHLY IF YOU POSSIBLY &RELIABLY CAN!


31 posted on 04/24/2015 2:07:49 PM PDT by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! God bless you all.)
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To: newgeezer
But, unless they had good reason to believe the referenced law didn't apply to their situation, when they chose to run afoul of the law, they had to know there would be consequences. They should have complied or moved. That's supposed to be an advantage to there being 50 states. If the one you're in isn't to your liking, chances are another one will be.... Until the federal gov't completely obliterates states' rights and mandates the same for all.

I dispute this argument. Their are fundamental rights granted us by "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and the government does not have the right to take them away from us regardless of what state we are in.

Illegal laws COMPEL disobedience. Do not think that this cup will pass before you if you run to another state. This Gaystapo Fascism is going to follow you to any state you run to, it will just take a little time.

I have heard countless discussions of what the Jews should have done prior to the Ascendency of Nazism in Germany. Well *WE* are the new Jews, and now we can answer that question with "What are we going to do?"

Fascism is Ascending.

32 posted on 04/24/2015 2:10:04 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: mykroar

Robbery Under Law


33 posted on 04/24/2015 2:10:07 PM PDT by Argus
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To: mykroar

Alan McCullough is a fascist. Un-American.


34 posted on 04/24/2015 2:11:12 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: originalbuckeye

Ya know there was a time, when the freaks of the world were treated like the freaks they were. Now let’s coddle them and glorify them, and celebrate their freakishness. Not!


35 posted on 04/24/2015 2:12:13 PM PDT by petercooper (And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus... Rollin' down Highway 41.)
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To: mykroar
"Examples of symptoms include “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “felt mentally raped, dirty and shameful,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain” and “worry.”

Lying pigs. How do they think the BAKERS feel right now?
36 posted on 04/24/2015 2:12:44 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: mykroar
An Oregon administrative law judge

Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries

The Civil Rights Division of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries

the state isn’t just pursuing the Kleins’ business assets, but their personal livelihood as well.

The recommended fine will now go to to state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian

I think I see a pattern as to who is attacking the small business owners in the state of

OREGON

37 posted on 04/24/2015 2:13:47 PM PDT by TYVets
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To: mykroar

“Examples of symptoms include “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “felt mentally raped, dirty and shameful,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain” and “worry.”

All that over a refusal to bake them a cake? If one refused to grill them a steak, would it cause them to keel over dead of a heart attack?


38 posted on 04/24/2015 2:15:36 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: mykroar
The penalty is excessive and cruel, and if enforced will literally destroy the lives of these people. Where is the justice? It lies fallen in the street...

The correction that is coming will be painful.

39 posted on 04/24/2015 2:16:00 PM PDT by semaj
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To: DiogenesLamp

BTTT


40 posted on 04/24/2015 2:27:07 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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