Emails Raise Questions of Bias in Case Against Bakers Who Denied Service for Same-Sex Wedding

dailysignal.com ^ | june 1, 2015 | kelsey harkness

[lowbridge]

The Daily Signal has exclusively learned that the government agency responsible for enforcing Oregon’s anti-discrimination law appears to be working closely with a powerful gay rights advocacy group in its case against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa.

Communications between the agency, theOregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.

In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000.

Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state.

[kvanbrunt2]

You are so correct except that we cannot exercise our rights any longer under penalty from the most part the 14th.

[Talisker]

You are so correct except that we cannot exercise our rights any longer under penalty from the most part the 14th.

Which is why the solution is to legislate a process by which the limitations of the 14A are specified, and a method by which it can be shown to be inapplicable in a given situation is clearly laid out.

Which is actually fairly easy to do. What's impossible is teaching people why it's needed.