Colorado Condemns Baker Jack Phillips For Being A Devout Christian, Again: This Time for Refusing to Bake a Cake Celebrating Transgenderism.

The Federalist ^ | 01/26/2023 | Jordan Boyd

[SeekAndFind]

“Phillips works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it,” an ADF press release states.

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner and devout Christian Jack Phillips is facing another bout of legal persecution after the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that he violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws for refusing to bake a cake celebrating transgenderism.

A three-judge panel determined on Thursday that Phillips’s firmly held belief that “God designed people male and female” is moot when it comes to his family business’s decision to decline the sales of certain cakes.

The same day that the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a similar case in 2018, Phillips’s shop was approached by transgender activist Autumn Scardina who deliberately stated intent to “correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking.” Scardina wanted Phillips to make a custom pink cake with blue icing to celebrate a “gender transition.” Scardina also requested a cake with “an image of Satan smoking marijuana.”

When Phillips refused because creating something celebrating transgenderism and Satan “conflicts with [his] Bible’s teachings,” which Scardina knew, Scardina sued him under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) for allegedly denying the sale based on Scardina’s “gender status.”

“Phillips works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it,” a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization representing Phillips, states.

For his belief “that a person’s gender is biologically determined,” Phillips was fined $500 by a trial court in 2021. Phillips appealed under the premise that his rejection of the cake order hinged on “firm and sincere religious beliefs and the right to be free from compelled speech that would violate those beliefs.

The appeals court, however, concluded that the cake Scardina tried to order inherently “expressed no message.” The judges conceded that “expressive conduct need not contain verbal speech or the written word to be entitled to First Amendment protection” but concluded that “not all conduct constitutes speech.”

ADF already announced its plans to appeal the court of appeals’ decision.

“Free speech is for everyone. No one should be forced to express a message that violates their core beliefs,” ADF Senior Counsel Jake Warner and Phillips’s lawyer said in a statement. “Over a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to say things he does not believe. Then an activist attorney continued that crusade. This cruelty must stop.”

For more than 10 years now, Phillips has endured persecution over his deeply held religious convictions related to sex and marriage.

Phillips won a partial victory on a similar issue in 2018 when the Supreme Court decided that the Colorado officials who wanted to punish the cake decorator for refusing to make a cake celebrating a homosexual marriage in 2012 displayed “a clear and impermissible hostility toward [Phillips’] sincere religious beliefs.”

The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reaffirm Christians’ rights to refuse certain services on religious grounds in 303 Creative v. Elenis, another ADF case in which a Christian artist challenges Colorado laws about discrimination, but has yet to release that decision.

[Michael.SF.]

They are really dead set on getting this guy. How dare he think he has rights that are equal to theirs!

[PubliusMM]

THIS should be settled law. The suit is a nuisance suit and should be dealt with as such.

[silent majority rising]

Can he countersunk and ask for damages? If so, any chance of winning?

[Dave911]

These sick POS’s are deliberately targeting this man and everyone knows it. They don’t even want the product and the first judge this comes to should throw it out.

[clintonh8r]

Mr. Phillips: Come to Florida! Colorado doesn’t deserve you. We will support you.

[noiseman]

Yet when conservatives complain about social media companies censoring their speech based solely on their point of view, in other words refusing to serve them, the leftists’ response is “go start your own social media company.”

[TigersEye]

Colorado isn’t condemning him the scumbag commie transplants
from CA, NJ, NY and other liberal chitholes are condemning him.

[Morgana]

WHY would transgenders even need a cake? WHAT are they even celebrating?

What kind of cake would you bake for them?

A phallic symbol cut in half with red icing? Do they even make cake molds for that?

Give the guy a break.

[Amendment10]

Thank you for referencing that article SeekAndFind.

"Colorado Condemns Baker Jack Phillips For Being A Devout Christian, Again: This Time for Refusing to Bake a Cake Celebrating Transgenderism."

---

When Congress sits on its hands and doesn't make 14th Amendment-based laws to discourage federal or state actors from abridging constitutionally enumerated rights, patriots need to primary federal RINOs every time that happens, especially when 1st and 2nd Amendment are abridged.

• "Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States [emphasis added]; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

• "Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

Lawmakers need to be primaried especially when they fail to remove from the bench judges who ignore constitutionally enumerated protections.

And while some Christian denominations seemingly wash their hands of government authority because it is "evil," 14A in this example, note that Acts 22:23-29 shows that the Holy Spirit led Apostle Paul to claim his Roman citizenship to get out of a flogging.

Also, consider that 14A was successfully applied in a relatively recent UC Berkeley, California case to win a judgment against abridgment of free speech, although I wouldn't be surprised if California taxpayers ultimately paid the settlement.

UC Berkeley settles landmark free speech lawsuit, will pay $70,000 to conservative group (12.4.18)

Consider that Justice Reed had put it this way about 10th Amendment-protected state powers versus 14A personal protections.

"Conflicts in the exercise of rights arise and the conflicting forces seek adjustments in the courts, as do these parties, claiming on the one side the freedom of religion, speech and the press, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and on the other the right to employ the sovereign power explicitly reserved to the State by the Tenth Amendment to ensure orderly living without which constitutional guarantees of civil liberties would be a mockery." —Justice Reed, Jones v. City of Opelika, 1942.

[Chode]

Ying yang cake...

[lasereye]

The reason they are still persecuting Phillips is because of the idiotic SCOTUS decision the last time that was authored by that moron Kennedy. The majority ruled that Phillips didn’t have a First Amendment right to refuse to bake the cake- but Kennedy also deplored how the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had said derogatory things about Phillips’ beliefs.

Kennedy essentially said: “You can violate his First Amendment rights, but do it politely!”. The idiot seemed to see that as a Solomon like compromise that would set an important precedent for how to violate Christians’ rights.

[Falconspeed]

“This cruelty must stop.” It will stop for the courageous baker. The losers in government are bullies who push around innocent people, because the losers in government are, well, losers and failures at life.

[moviefan8]

The customer has to be served because the baker is being paid. It shouldn’t matter if the baker likes him or not.

If the baker has a problem, the baker shouldn’t
be in business. Serve everybody or lose your business.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: The customer has to be served because the baker is being paid. It shouldn’t matter if the baker likes him or not.

1. The Baker isn’t accepting the customer’s money, therefore is not being paid.

2. The Baker never said he dislikes the customers, he objects to being asked to perform a service that is against his religious convictions.

It is also an exercise of first amendment rights NOT to do service for a group that wants you to use your skills against your personal conscience ( for example, I will not create a printed flyer for a Nazi group or a racist organization like the KKK ).

RE: Serve everybody or lose your business.

NOPE, here should be limits to WHO one wishes to serve.

Religious freedom is the FIRST Amendment in the Bill of Rights for a reason.

[moviefan8]

Since you believe that people should refuse service to certain individuals then you should have no objection to not being served by someone.

[Chickensoup]

If someone doest wa t my business I would happily push on

[IYAS9YAS]

What kind of cake would you bake for them?

Nutless fruitcake?

[TonyM]

If I ask someone to perform a task that they replied is against their religious beliefs I would thank them, tell them I understood and meant no insult, and gracefully exit the establishment. Thats what should happen in a society that respects other peoples beliefs. Its odd that for a large city with apparently such a big demand for queer themed cakes the only place to get a cake is that particular baker, or perhaps there are other options but this baker is asked just for the purpose of trying to get him to bend to man’s law rather than God’s law.

[Eleutheria5]

They are never going to stop this. Anyone who says ‘no’ to them gets driven out of business by legal costs. Why doesn’t someone who digs tranny just open up his/her/their/huh?’s own bake shop specializing in weirdo cakes? Because the whole point is ruining dissenters’ lives, that’s why! Go woke or else.