Posted on 07/06/2015 11:57:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
By decree of the great state of Oregon, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa must pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple whom they “mentally raped” by refusing to bake their wedding cake. This was expected, but the final judgment, handed down last Thursday, came with another twist. Aaron and Melissa Klein have also been given a “cease and desist” order, which effectively decrees they must refrain from stating their continued intention to abide by their moral beliefs.
Land of the What-Was-That?
Let’s be clear on why this is so sinister. There are times when speech rights conflict with other legitimate social goods. The public’s right to know can conflict with individual privacy rights. Sometimes threats to public safety warrant keeping secrets. There can be interesting debates about intellectual property rights. These cases can get tricky, and we should all understand that speech rights necessarily do have certain pragmatic limits.
None of those concerns apply here. The Kleins did not threaten public safety. They violated no one’s privacy or property rights. Rather, the Oregon labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, wanted to silence them because the content of their speech. Presumably he was angry that the Kleins’ defiant stance had earned them a potentially profitable reputation as heroes for religious freedom. They were meant to be humiliated and cowed; instead there was a real chance they would land on their feet. So they had to be gagged to prevent that from happening.
If the First Amendment doesn’t apply to a case like this, it is meaningless.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
What's to stop a judge from preventing FR from operating in the future?
In addition to other emotional responses, RBC (Rachel Bowman-Cryer) described that being raised a Christian in the Southern Baptist Church, Respondent’s denial of service made her feel as if God made a mistake when he made her, that she wasn’t supposed to be, that she wasn’t supposed to love or be loved, have a family, or go to heaven. LBC (Laurel Bowman-Cryer) who was raised Catholic, interpreted the denial to represent that she was not a creature created by god, not created with a soul and unworthy of holy love and life… These are the reasonable and very real responses to not being allowed to participate in society like everyone else.
Okay, let’s get this straight. These two women wanted Aaron and Melissa Klein to bake their wedding cake. Rachel and her mother came in to discuss it, and were told that the Kleins didn’t do same-sex weddings. Based on this policy (set by people they had never met before that day), the women concluded that they were not created by God, had no soul, were unworthy of love and would not go to heaven.
According to the Oregon Labor Commission, these were reasonable conclusions, based on their failure to procure a cake. I realize that most bureaucrats don’t have advanced degrees in theology. Do you need one here? The phrase “non-sequitur” doesn’t fully seem to cover it.
I don’t think any judge can do that.
Time for 2nd Amendment to kick in. Don’t pay a dime.
of course not.
This will be overturned, 100% guaranteed.
Leave the state and take your business with you.
TX, FL #1, #2 for business friendly states.....
I don’t think this guy is even a judge; he is the labor commissioner. Woe betide any business in Oregon that does anything this guy does not like.
I would think even liberal judges in Oregon would be crying foul here. He is taking away the rights of judges to pass sentences.
Oregon Ping
After last week, I’m only willing to go with a 95% guarantee.
“I don’t think any judge can do that.”
No worries. Brad isn’t a judge, he’s a petty bureaucrat - technically Oregon’s Labor Commissioner.
What do you have when unelected bureaucrats can cancel out the constitutional rights of citizens on a whim? You sure as hell don’t have a free country.
The Continue to Give site for the Kleins is at 110% of goal. People gave from all other the world, not just the US. It was really something to see. And they’re still giving!
So....they can pay the fine.
And we can stand with them until this fascist judgment is overturned.
Now the thought police are coming for us.
Hoping so.....maybe...maybe it will be the catalyst that finally starts OREGON turning away from it’s commie/facist behavior
Big bad Brad is bought and paid for by the homosexual rights organizations in OR. They donated quite a bit of money to his campaign.
Sure as it winds its way through the court system.In the meantime those people will be put through hell.The judge needs to be tarred and feathered but he may like that.
and where exactly does the good judge live?
The authoress wrote of the Oregon Labor Commissioner’s edict. He’s a bureaucrat.
It isn’t a judgement. It is a diktat. BIG DIFFERENCE.
This is such absolute BS, the free market and competition deals with issues like this and it’s absolutely no right of the government to get involved. This is a clear violation of religious freedom, if it isn’t, then lets see them go into an Islamic bookstore and demand gay literature be sold.
When I see a sign on a restaurant that says "No Bikers" or "No Biker Attire" it tells me the proprietor of that restaurant does not want to prepare and serve food for me, and I find somewhere else to eat.
I then avoid the place in question even when not on a bike and/or not dressed in "biker attire". I would never even consider trying to force the people in the restaurant to prepare a meal for me.
We used to call this: Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law, Title 18, section 242
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