Free Republic

‘All Americans are entitled to due process, with a fair hearing before an unbiased tribunal. The Kleins never received that,’ said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty.GRESHAM, Oregon (LifeSiteNews) — The Christian bakers who were slammed with fines and ultimately lost their business after they refused to bake a cake for a gay “wedding” are once more bringing their case before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the state violated their due process and First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court had previously reviewed the case in 2019 before remanding it to a lower court. Attorneys with the public interest law...

An Oregon state agency has dramatically reduced the penalty it issued to a Gresham bakery that refused to sell a same-sex couple a wedding cake nearly a decade ago. Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle announced Tuesday that she had slashed the penalty for Sweet Cakes by Melissa from $135,000 to $30,000 in response to a Jan. 26 ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals.

An Oregon Court of Appeals ruling earlier this year found the state’s initial award of $135,000 in damages against Sweet Cakes By Melissa showed signs of bias. The state of Oregon has drastically reduced financial penalties it assigned a Gresham baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple nearly a decade ago. In compliance with a state appeals court ruling earlier this year, State Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle announced Tuesday that the Bureau of Labor and Industries is ordering Aaron Klein to pay $30,000 damages in the case, down from a $135,000 penalty handed out in...

BAKERSFIELD, California – It would be a violation of free speech for a Christian baker to be forced to make a same-sex "wedding" cake, a California judge ruled on Monday. Cathy Miller owns Tastries Bakery, where 40 percent of her business is wedding cakes, many of which she personally designs. Last August two lesbians asked her to design a special cake to celebrate their “marriage,” and Miller politely redirected them to an accommodating competitor. Nevertheless, as is the well-established LGBT pattern, the lesbians sued Miller anyway. They filed a complaint with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, accusing...

A group of African-American rights activists have spoken out in defense of Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop as his religious freedom case will be argued before the United States Supreme Court in December. Three conservative African-American public policy groups — the Frederick Douglass Foundation, Star Parker's Center of Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) and pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger's Radiance Foundation — launched a new website titled WeGotYourBackJack.com in support of Phillip's First Amendment right. The website was announced at a press conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. on Monday in which a handful...

Amid the religious liberty cases increasingly heading to the courts, there’s one prominent legal battle that could potentially have some sweeping ramifications: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. It’s a case that surrounds baker Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. Phillips, much like Oregon bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein and numerous other wedding venders across the U.S., has found himself in the crosshairs of the government as well as LGBTQ activists after declining in 2012 to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The baker is waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether to...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela this week arrested four bakers making illegal brownies and other pastries as President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government threatens to take over bakeries in Caracas as part of a new "bread war". Maduro has sent inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries around the capital this week to enforce a rule that 90 percent of wheat must be destined to loaves rather than more expensive pastries and cakes.

"As one who celebrates and strives for diversity, individual freedom, and respect for all lifestyles, I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next First Lady," wrote fashion designer Sophie Theallet in an open letter this week. People magazine reports Theallet, who has designed and donated clothes for outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama numerous times over the last eight years, may not be alone: "A source tells People, 'This has already been going on for months. Designers wouldn't lend to Melania, Ivanka or Tiffany, so they either bought the items themselves or wore Ivanka's brand....

Dear Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, Captain of the Oregon Thought Police Division, Head Appropriate Beliefs Enforcer, Lord Chancellor of Acceptable Opinions, Minister of Tolerance, greetings and salutations. I’ve been closely following the case of Aaron and Melissa Klein, the depraved fugitive cowards who committed the capital offense of WPH (Withholding Pastries from Homosexuals), and have been attempting to evade justice ever since. As you know, it all started when a lesbian couple came to their bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, back in 2013 looking for a wedding cake. They’d been served by Sweet Cakes many times before, but only...

The last we had heard from Aaron and Melissa Klein, the former owners of Sweet Cakes in Oregon that lost their bakery business after refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, the site GoFundMe had shut down their crowdfunding operation. That was in April, but the drama was not over for the Kleins, who faced a stiff fine for their allegedly discriminatory conduct. Aaron and Melissa defended themselves in media interviews in an attempt to prevent the state of Oregon from further penalizing them, but Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian went even further than anyone might...

Christian owners of a bakery in Gresham, Oregon, who were forced to close their business in 2013 due to backlash over their refusal to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding based on religious objections, were found guilty of discrimination Monday and now have to pay the couple up to $150,000 in fines. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries announced that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, Aaron and Melissa Klein, will have to pay the sapphic couple. Whether or not they pay the maximum $150,000 fine will be determined at a hearing on March 10 BOLI...

There is one sure-fire way to stop any particular dumb idea being pushed by liberals. Whatever the topic, it is almost guaranteed. Simply turn it around and apply any liberal proposal or regulation to liberals. You will watch any dumb idea disappear or crazy law be repealed so fast you won’t know what happened. That’s what happened to the Independent Counsel law. As soon as Republicans started using it against Democrats, specifically Bill Clinton, abruptly Democrats fell out of love with the law and let it lapse when it was up for renewal. Liberals live in a world of double...

It is said that people get the government they deserve. As the election of 2012 proves, this is woefully inaccurate in politics, because even if those who consciously voted for the destructive Democratic Party do deserve it, those who wisely voted against it certainly do not. The same saying is often said of the economy, particularly when something disastrous happens – a large-scale layoff, a manufacturer fleeing burdensome taxes or regulations for the welcoming shores of China or India, a company collapsing under the weight of an unreasonable union. But there too, the saying is inaccurate. Even if some deserve...

Daisy Baker’s, a fine-dining restaurant in downtown Troy, N.Y., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will remain open as it reorganizes its debts. Jim Scully, president of Green Street Entertainment Corp., which owns the restaurant, said sales haven’t fully recovered from last year’s sharp downturn, when the recession especially hurt high-end restaurants nationwide. In past recessions, Daisy Baker’s could rely on short-term borrowing to make it through slow periods. But that’s not the case anymore. “We were always able to finance our operations to keep up with our seasonality, but banks stopped lending a couple years ago,” Scully...