Posted on 01/08/2014 10:12:26 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Attorneys representing a Colorado cake shop and its Christian owner filed an appeal last week after a judge ruled last month that the company must sell wedding cakes to gay couples.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys filed the appeal Friday on behalf of Masterpiece Cakeshop and its owner, Jack Phillips.
"Every artist must be free to create work that expresses what he or she believes and not be forced to express contrary views," said ADF Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner in a statement. "Forcing Americans to promote ideas against their will undermines our constitutionally protected freedom of expression and our right to live free. If the government can take away our First Amendment freedoms, there is nothing it can't take away."
In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins asked Phillips to make a cake for their wedding reception. The couple planned to marry in Massachusetts then hold their reception in Colorado, where same-sex marriages are not recognized.
Phillips, a Christian, told the couple he would make them other baked items but, because of his religious beliefs, could not make them a cake for their wedding celebration.
Craig and Mullins, who are being represented by the ACLU of Colorado, filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which determined that Masterpiece Cakeshop had illegally discriminated against them. According to the ACLU, the CCRD's findings then led the Colorado Attorney General's office to file a formal complaint against the company with the state courts.
"The undisputed facts show that respondents (Phillips) discriminated against complainants because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage," wrote Administrative Law Judge Robert N. Spencer in his decision in December.
Attorneys for Phillips argue that he did not deny the couple a wedding cake "because of" their sexual orientation, according to court documents. He did so because of his "unwavering Christian beliefs" about marriage and about how God would feel if he were to participate in or promote a same-sex wedding.
His attorneys also argue that Phillips's right to refuse to make a cake for a gay wedding celebration is protected by the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment.
"America was founded on the fundamental freedom of all citizens to live and work without fear of government punishment," said lead counsel Nicolle Martin, an ADF allied attorney, in a statement. "Jack simply exercised the long-cherished freedom to not speak by declining to promote a false view of marriage through his creative work. It's outrageous that the government would turn its guns on Jack and threaten him with a potential jail sentence unless he says and does what the government demands."
A Rasmussen Reports survey conducted in July 2013 focused on another type of wedding vendor, photographers. The survey found that 85 percent of American adults believe a Christian photographer who is opposed to gay marriage on religious grounds should have the right to say no when asked to work a same-sex wedding ceremony, and only eight percent disagree.
Good. Fight back!
The “I’m an artist” angle is a new one, and pretty creative. Since he offered to sell them other baked goods he has a good case, logically anyways.
Although, if ultimately forced to bake cakes for gay weddings, I think the best option is to fight fire with fire. Bake a good cake, then announce that the profits will be donated to a group dedicated to converting homosexuals to heterosexuals. He’ll never be asked to bake a cake for another gay wedding ...
1. Find a Gay Owned Print shop.
2. Have them print out flyers on the dangers of homosexual behavior.
3. Sue them when they won’t print it..
4. FORCE them to print it using government machinery they wanted to force others to make cakes....
It's time to pound some cake into the intolerant homosexuals faces.
I’ll make em a cake, $1 million with all proceeds to that group you mentioned.
If retail stores open to the general public are allowed to refuse service to people with “No shirt, No shoes, No service”, aren’t those stores discriminating against shirtless, shoeless people? What’s the difference here?
Being gay is not an immutable characteristic, people CHOOSE to be gay. (Show me the gay gene). If I want to stay overnight at the YWCA why can they refuse to let me just because I’m a man? Isn’t that discrimination? The Gaystopo are hypocrites.
Also freedom of association. A private business has the right to refuse service to anyone.
Not only that, but forcing him to provide goods/services violates the 13th Amendment -- Sec 1 - Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
He didn't refuse to sell them a cake. He refused to utilize his artistic talents to promote an agenda which he did not support.
This is a first amendment freedom of expression case. An artist should be free to pick the subjects in which he will exercise his artistic talents.
If the judge forces him to make them cakes, then he should charge $5,000 per cake...
Why must he sell to people he doesn’t want to?
RE: he should charge $5,000 per cake...
What if he charges much less for cakes baked for traditional weddings? Won’t he be sued again under the equal protection clause?
Both Nazis and the KKK are legal orgs. They have their rights. And if homos can demand people bake cakes for them, I guess hate groups have the same rights according to the lib legal eagles.
Awesome!
Make the cake, stick your privates in it, and if a homosexual complains call them cake-aphobes! Declare having sex with cakes was something you were born with and anyone who disagrees with it is full of hate.
If that doesn’t work, just call the act of putting your private in homosexual wedding cakes “art” and maybe the federal government will give you tax dollars to do it.
Since I can imagine that he would do the most appropriate cake relevant to the wedding being done then his only choice in this case would be to make a fruitcake.
heh...yeppers.
Baker ruins brides big day by making cake to look like pile of faeces with flag sticking out saying ‘Eat s***’ after bust-up
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2535758/Cake-maker-sends-bride-cake-look-like-faeces-flag-sticking-saying-eat-sh-t-disagreement.html
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