Posted on 10/05/2015 9:01:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Officials in Oregon have started a legal process to seize $135,000 from Christian bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein after they refused to pay the state-ordered damages for declining to bake a cake for a lesbian marriage ceremony.
"Our agency has docketed the judgment and is exploring collection options," Charlie Burr, communications director at Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, told The Daily Signal. "They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order."
It's a preliminary step to seize the Kleins' house, property, or other assets in lieu of payment.
In July, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, or BOLI, ordered the Kleins to pay $135,000 for declining to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, who filed a civil rights complaint against the bakery in 2013 for "emotional, mental, and physical suffering."
However, the Kleins, former owners of Sweet Cakes, have filed an appeal of the ruling and are defying the order to pay, citing financial hardship among other reasons. The couple had to shut down their bakery after the civil rights complaint was filed.
The Kleins have said they will resist the order.
"There's legal reasons and there's also kind of personal reasons," Aaron Klein was quoted as saying. "If a civil court or a circuit court judge had made this order, I would consider it legally binding. But when a bureaucracy does it and I didn't get due process, I don't call it legally binding."
The Kleins' attorneys asked BOLI to issue a stay in order to put the damages payment on hold until their appeals ruling comes out. However, the agency is not willing.
"It's difficult to understand the Kleins' unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars," Burr said. "They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order."
The Kleins raised some money through crowdfunding sites, but Aaron says the "half million" figure is "bloated."
"It is not what we have available, it is not what we have on hand, and there are so many variables to where that money has to go, what has to happen with that money, that we're not touching that money for any purpose because I don't know what the future holds," he was quoted as saying.
In the complaint against the bakers in 2013, Bowman alleged that Sweet Cakes refused to sell her and her fiancée a cake for their upcoming wedding and that Aaron Klein called their relationship an "abomination unto the Lord."
Later that year, Bowman filed an anti-discrimination complaint with BOLI, charging that the Christian couple had violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007. Although the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa are religious, the bakery is not recognized as a religious institution under law, BOLI said.
Shortly before the couple was forced out of business, Aaron said he had apologized for wasting the lesbian couple's time and explained that they don't participate in same-sex marriages based on religious grounds. "(I) honestly did not mean to hurt anybody, didn't mean to make anybody upset, (it's) just something I believe in very strongly."
Oregon is as screwed up as California.
I’m not sure what reality those public officials are living in, but it would be interesting to see how they think the damaged two are deserving of $135,000.00.
The universe I live in sheds no light on that.
Since sanity is out of the question, what these officials (and the two emotional lesbians for that matter) need is an acute dose of instant Karma.
A few of these folks pulling this crap need to vanish forever.
Hoping the couple stick to their guns & refuse to pay. No reason the state should get away with this for such a spurious reason. The ones that were “offended” had plenty of options,I’ll bet & were probably just seeking some easy money.
They have a moral right and obligation to disregard an unjust and immoral order, regardless of whether that order was issued under the pretense of the rule of law. I cannot wait to see the evil thugs who filed the lawsuit and the evil thugs who issued the order prosecuted for denial of rights under color of law:
18 U.S. Code § 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law: Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States . . . shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Personally, I'm okay with the death penalty for rapists, murderers, and traitors, as well as for petty tyrants guilty of the horrendous crime of attempting to compel innocent people to violate their religious values.
The First Amendment says and used to mean, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….” In contrast the ruling on gay marriage helps illustrates how far the country has departed from first principles.
We are familiar with the term “speech or expression’, which seems an innocuous expansion of the above amendment. However, “expression” enables a nearly unbounded multi-billion dollar pornography industry.
Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion states, “The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to advocate and teach the principles that are so fulfilling and central to their lives and faith”. Such language severely restricts religious freedom by happening to exclude “free exercise thereof”. This oversight means one cannot exercise religious beliefs in business and personal lives.
Now we have a country in which a woman can choose to express herself in the adult film industry, but cannot own a bakery and choose to exercise her religious convictions by refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.
The Formal End to Judeo-Christian America
http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2015/06/30/the-formal-end-to-judeochristian-america-n2018986/page/full
6/27/15 Wayne Cordeiro
https://www.facebook.com/pastorwaynecordeiro?fref=nf
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Oregon officials should drop this and turn their attention, instead, to the college shooter who was spawned in their midst.
Those public officials should be fully identified with their names and addresses published for all to see.
Three S’s would work for me.
I agree.
Laws against Christians are “Legally Binding” Against Liberals at best they are advisory.
Cruel and unusual
Pure fascism. To date, al sharpton hasn’t paid what he owes.
Cruel and unusual
Double unconstitutional 1st A violation.
Laws respecting homos religious practices, and laws prohibiting the free speech of non homos!
BTW I'm pretty sure she plagiarized that quote from Leviticus!
An individual has the right to appeal a crummy traffic speeding citation before a judge. Is this “authority” stating that their rulings are immutable and exceed the authority of any judiciary? If so, then they are an agency outside the bounds of any control, check, or balance.
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