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.
Sounds like government collusion is going on here for open ended claims like this not to get laughed out of the court.
LOL!! great idea
Really? I am usually more concerned about the 2nd amendment so can someone please explain to me how this does not violate the 7th Amendment.
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Will someone in Oregon please put Alan McCullough on the list for re-education after the restoration?
The Jews were the scapegoats, just as the Christians are now. All the Jews did was work, study, produce, and mind their own business. But, you need that emotional target for the hate.
The Good News: eventually, there has to be Night of the Long Knives, wherein the NAZI homo terrorists will get to meet Karma, the patron goddess of Murphy's Law.
At this point I would just bake their effin cake. I would blow my nose into the batter a few times and never tell a soul. I would just laugh to myself from time to time.
I would tell these gay mutants that I only discuss wedding cakes for 20 minutes so they would not waste my time. With all payment in advance.
IOW they would get the quick and dirty school of wedding cakes from me
I cannot explain how furious I am over this. I don’t know when I have been so upset about anything. There is no stopping them. They will force Christian churches to “marry” homosexuals. It is coming. Unless we get Christians into positions of decision-making, we will lose and lose bad.
“Get used to communism. It is sweeping America State by State.”
Don’t think so -
Union cancels Boeing vote, claiming gun-toting workers told it to take off
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3282756/posts
I think I will get me a voodoo doll from Little Haiti in Miami and put Alan McCullogh’s name on it and stick pins in it.
I really wish nothing but bad on this man. And the lesbians.
These people are turning me into someone I never thought I would be and it is very ugly.
Is McCullough gay, by chance?
Yeah, when the government tells you that as a Christian you do not have any rights, you should just move. Screw the Constitution and any imagined freedom of religion. After all, it is just a piece of paper.
Ah but you see the excuse is that it would be a “hate cake” and offensive, so it would be ok not to make it. You would be forcing somebody to make a cake “against” something (Christian = anti-gay), whereas a gay-marriage cake is “for” something (two people loving each other). Seriously, I’ve heard this argument. It completely flies over their heads that a Christian is taking a position because they’re FOR an ethics/moral code, gays are anti-that-code.
...free speech be damned, yes, the left really do think they get to decide for everyone.
Why we can’t win one of these cases based on the fact that it is “working under contract for an event” we morally oppose, therefore will not spend our time and energy working toward it - vs. the entirely different situation of not selling a pre-baked cake to someone because of WHO they are? There’s a difference between discriminating between people and an event. One involves a contract, the other doesn’t.
In all those ‘symptoms’ where is “Miscarriage”?
Or maybe she just has “Morning Sickness”.
and when a Muslim cabbie says NO to a fare with a service dog or orthodox jew?
I’d bake ‘em a cake and use Minny Jackson’s recipe. They’re probably used to the taste.
Should be eleventy-skadillion dollars. Screw it, just go hog-a$$ wild, libs.
How much is the fine if I make the cake with my special turd frosting? I’d give you a cake you would never forget!
https://dasapp.oregon.gov/statephonebook/display.asp?agency=83900&division=00030§ion=00020
State Agency Directory
Administrative Prosecution Unit
Office of Administrative Services
Labor And Industries, Bureau Of
800 NE Oregon St. Suite 1045
Portland, OR 97232 Envelope
Fax: (971) 673-3141
Web site: www.oregon.gov/boli/
Admin Law Judge (Eugene) Alan McCullough (541) 686-7510
Chief Prosecutor Jenn Gaddis (971) 673-0822
Administrative Prosecutor Adriana Ortega (971) 673-0801
Administrative Prosecutor Cristin Casey (971) 673-0823
Contested Case Coordinator Rebekah Taylor-Failor (971) 673-0821
Part Time Administrative Law Judge Kari Furnanz (971) 673-0786
I already emailed McCullough. I’ll email the rest of them.
I am so mad. I know my blood pressure is up.
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