From a related thread …
The referenced baker is paying the consequences for evidently not knowing his 14th Amendment (14A) protections.
14th Amendment, 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.
Regardless what pro-gay activist justices and judges want everybody to think about LGBT “constitutional” rights, gay “marriage” for example, the states have never amended the Constitution to expressly protect such rights. And misguided, low-information state officials are unthinkingly violating Section 1 of 14A, imo, by using PC, constitutionally unprotected gay “rights” to trump constitutionally enumerated rights, the 1st Amendment-protected rights of religious expression and free speech in these cases.
Regarding business owners using 14A to protect themselves from misguided, pro-LGBT state officials and other likewise low-information LGBT supporters, note that Acts 22:23-30 indicates that Paul claimed his rights as a Roman citizen to save himself from being flogged.
But that was not Paul’s only goal. It was also to press the issue. He was not refusing Caesar’s help there, fickle as it was.