Posted on 10/05/2015 1:38:47 PM PDT by markomalley
Melissa and Aaron Klein of Oregon, who were ordered by a state agency to pay two women $135,000 after they refused to take part in their same-sex wedding plans, may now face seizure of their assets. An administrative judge fined the couple after they declined to bake a cake for the lesbian couple, citing their religious objections. The fine was ordered by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which had accused the Klein couple of violating the Oregon Equality Act of 2007. According to reports, the agency is docketing the judgement and is exploring various options for collection.
Docketing the judgment would put it on the records of the court, making it the first step towards seizing the Kleins’ home, property, and other assets in place of their payment of the fine. When ordering the fine, the State of Oregon put a gag order on the Klein family, demanding that they “not to speak “publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.” Bureau Commissioner Brad Avakian said at the time of the finding, “The goal is to rehabilitate…For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon.”
The Kleins’ filed a petition for review with the Washington Court of Appeals in July, after Oregon’s final order upheld the $135,000 fine. Attorneys for the family as for a stay, which would have put payment of the fine to the Bureau on hold until after a ruling could be reached on their appeals. However, the Bureau declined. Attorneys for the Bureau told the Klein family to obtain a bond or an irrevocable line of credit.
Melissa Klein said "There’s legal reasons and there’s also kind of personal reasons. 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 Klein family has gotten little sympathy from the State, despite popular fundraising campaigns on their behalf. “It’s difficult to understand the Kleins’ unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars,” said Bureau spokesman Charlie Burr. He added that they do “not have the right to disregard a legally binding order.”
Aaron Klein disputed Burr’s estimate of the amount garnered in fundraising. “The number they’ve given out is bloated,” he said. “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.”
If the highlighted doesn't scare the ever living daylights out of you...nothing will..
They’ve successfully criminalized Christianity.
This is an E’ffing outrage!
We can kill two birds with one stone to stop this harassment of christians.
Solicit some Log Cabin republican / Libertarians gays who’re planning on getting married and go insist that Muslim bakeries “Bake the damn cake”.
Press charges accordingly just as in this case.
Then we’ll be able to expose Muslims as the true haters that they are.
As society becomes more of a dumbed down Idiocracy, highlighting blatant hypocrisy / unequal treatment by the law, is one of the few options we have to fight back.
Don’t give them a cent and say whatever you want.
This is open, unabashed fascism. It no longer tries to hide its face.
Translation: "They Have money, we want it, and will use the means we have to get it."
Where I come from, that's extortion. But since a state entity is doing the extorting, it's legal.
Good point. That might be why he doesn't want to take direct custody of the money that was raised for him.
Don’t forget that the whole point of such a confrontation is to make you compromise your faith or be punished.
What you propose doesn’t accomplish that, so they would find a way to make you fall into one of those choices.
I’m sure there must be an unconstitutional unwarranted due process or seizure violation here. Time to go to the federal courts.
It’s also “against to law” to move large sums of your own money, as Dennis Hastert has found out.
If they were a black couple that had raped, tortured and murdered a white couple they would not have had such a rapid encounter with the state’s “justice” system.
The country is descending into terminal insanity.
I would hope they have a group like Liberty Counsel or ADFadvising or acting as counsel.
If they were to seize the house...torch it. Let them find smoldering ashes. As for any cash...spend it, or convert it to gold, then leave for a free state like Texas or Florida.
The leftist establishment really does want to eliminate Christianity and its influence on the laws and customs of this no-longer-great country.
They better be careful. I hear they shoot Christians in Oregon.......
Someone already did that, though I don’t think they pressed charges. It was just to make a point. They went around to Muslim bakeries and some did, indeed, refuse to bake Christian cakes.
Great idea!
Every Christian and conservative should if they can move out of their liberal hell hole states.
Imagine a couple of millions moving out of the north east and the west coast , thus moving to places like CO, VA, NC, WY, etc and then making those states solidly conservative and raising the electoral count for the state while blue states lose taxes and the electoral count
After all, its supposed to be a free country or am I delusional?
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