Posted on 10/25/2022 9:21:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Victory for a Christian baker was announced on Friday after years of going around the court system for a lawsuit over a rejected wedding cake order. The order for the wedding cake depicted two lesbians; therefore, creating such a cake conflicted with the Cakeshop owner’s religious beliefs about marriage.
“Judge rules Christian baker was allowed to refuse to sell cake to lesbian couple,” LGBTQ Nation reported, adding:
“In his decision, Kern County Superior Court Judge Eric Bradshaw said that the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing had failed to prove that Tastries Bakery owner Cathy Miller had intentionally discriminated against the couple under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.”
The public may remember the case that was widely discussed and used by the left as a rallying call to action for increased empowerment of homosexuals against Christians and against small businesses.
“We applaud the court for this decision,” said Charles LiMandri, Thomas More Society special counsel who worked on the case said in an official statement, adding: “The freedom to practice one’s religion is enshrined in the First Amendment, and the United States Supreme Court has long upheld the freedom of artistic expression.”
Fox News reported on the story with more details:
Cathy Miller, a cake designer who owns the popular Tastries bakery in Bakersfield, California, won what her lawyers at the Thomas More Society called “a First Amendment victory” when Judge Eric Bradshaw of the Superior Court of California in Kern County ruled against California’s Department of Fair Housing and Employment, which had brought the lawsuit against her.
Miller was subject to multiple lawsuits after she referred a lesbian couple to another baker when they requested a cake for their wedding. Because of her Christian belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, Miller declined to design a custom cake for their ceremony, believing it would be tantamount to a tacit affirmation.
“Here at Tastries, we love everyone,” Miller said in an interview with KERO in 2017. “My husband and I are Christians, and we know that God created everyone, and He created everyone equal, so it’s not that we don’t like people of certain groups, there are just certain things that violate my conscience.”
After refusing to make the cake, the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment filed a lawsuit against Miller’s business under provisions of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, a broad 1959 state statute that sought to protect consumers from being discriminated against by businesses on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or religion.
Paul Jonna, another special counsel for the Thomas More Society who was also one of Miller’s attorneys, pointed out that there was “a certain irony” to the case since “a law intended to protect individuals from religious discrimination was used to discriminate against Cathy for her religious beliefs.”
“He went on to say that his client’s beliefs regarding marriage are part of what is considered mainstream Christian teachings and that in going after Miller, the state harassed her because of her religion.
The attorney also noted that during questioning under oath, attorneys for the state appeared to question the sincerity of her beliefs by asking if she also adhered to dietary laws of the Old Testament like she does regarding the issues of sexual morality,” Jon Doughtery reported for Conservative Brief.
“The state was actually questioning the sincerity of Cathy’s faith,” Jonna said. “The fact that they called Miller’s open and sincerely held beliefs into question is almost as disturbing as quibbling over her status as an artist.”
“In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games in another huge First Amendment victory.
When the school district learned that then-coach Joseph Kennedy was praying with the team, they told him that he could pray separately from the students. Kennedy declined to change his practice, was put on paid leave, and then filed a lawsuit,” Doughtery reported.
During oral arguments, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices seemed sympathetic to Kennedy. The Washington Post reported:
Questions from the court’s conservatives indicated they believe the school district has misread the court’s precedents regarding government endorsement of religion and perhaps was hostile to such demonstrations.
Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether Kennedy would have been disciplined if he had taken a knee during the national anthem to protest racism. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. questioned Katskee, legal director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, about other political activism.
Suppose “when Coach Kennedy went out to the center of the field … all he did was to wave a Ukrainian flag. Would you have fired him?” Alito asked.
“Where is the school district rule that says that?” Alito demanded.
“No teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public,” Kelly Shackelford, president, and CEO of First Liberty, who is representing the case, said in a statement.
Thank God for this victory. I have been praying nightly for these people.
Send this “lesbian couple” to Iran. Or Afghanistan.
Let them go try this “serve me by force” nonsense there and see where it gets them.
It’s only a victory if it’s really over for them.
Hah! Let these fruit cakes eat cake! Just don’t expect NORMAL people to be forced to bake it!
Maybe they can spice up their own ingredients, such as adding a pillar of salt to the equaision.
They will send a tranny in next, something like a cake for a sex change commemoration party.
They are NOT going to leave the baker alone. The goal is not a cake, it’s to put her out of business. Probably because she is a Christian.
I’m a bit confused on how this actually started. Did they refuse to provide the cake on the grounds that the customers were lesbians, or because the customers wanted the cake customized in a particular way that would have comprised a statement regarding lesbianism? In my worldview you can refuse to bake a lesbian cake, but you can’t refuse to bake a lesbian a cake.
RE: Did they refuse to provide the cake on the grounds that the customers were lesbians, or because the customers wanted the cake customized in a particular way that would have comprised a statement regarding lesbianism? I
The Latter. They wanted the Cake designed in such a way tht it CELEBRATES a homosexual marriage.
RE: It’s only a victory if it’s really over for them.
Yes. The Lesbian Couple still has the option of bringing their case to a higher court. If they do, this is only one battle won for the Christian baker, not the war.
So they can’t lick that?
“The order for the wedding cake depicted two lesbians; therefore, creating such a cake conflicted with the Cakeshop owner’s religious beliefs about marriage.”
Yes, the couple could have bought any standard cake in the store but wanted a customization with a same-sex couple depicted on top.
The incident was way back in 2017. I’m hoping the baker has not gone bankrupt seeing her case through, but I would not be surprised if shes been struggling financially.
The lesbians went there to start trouble. They asked for what they knew would be refused so they could sue. They lost, so far.
It was to be a customized cake. They offered to sell them a cake and let them decorate it themselves.
Bingo. It started with demanding a wedding cake for homosexuals and now its sterilizing kids. I’d call that a slippery slope.
The lawsuit was a set up and for the purpose of legislation through litigation.
They could have gone to ANY other bakery but no, chose that one.
Since there were other options available, it’s then safe to conclude that the only reason to pick one you know is a Christian and sue them is for the sake of the lawsuit itself.
I wonder why the conservatives have not done the same ... tried to force a Muslim baker to bake a gay-themed cake or a leftist-run bakery to make a pro-life or MAGA cake.
https://thomasmoresociety.org/when-a-wedding-cake-becomes-a-weapon-in-the-culture-wars/
In the ‘90s we were in church one Sunday morning, and in pranced a group of four or five transvestites. I was in the choir and we saw them the minutes they walked in the door thinking, “Uh oh. What now?”
The usher welcomed them and took them to an empty pew toward the front. After about five minutes they got up and walked out.
Turns out it was an organized event where the weirdos went to all the Baptist churches in the area to start big trouble. When they realized they weren’t going to be successful they just left.
We figured if they were there, they might as well hear the Gospel.
Rather than send them somewhere, the baker should send them the bill
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