The problem was the SCOTUS decision he won was not on strict freedom of speech grounds. It was on the grounds that he was treated with prejudice by the state civil rights commission. I imagine the current case is a setup, with the civil rights commission now thinking they know how to handle the case to avoid what they were called on by SCOTUS.
Hopefully, if Kavanaugh gets in before his new case goes to SCOTUS, it won’t matter and we’ll get the religious freedom point settled.
Your post #63 is exactly correct. This is happening because the grounds for Kennedy’s majority opinion were too narrow to set a precedent on the core issue.