Free Republic

For over a decade, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, has been embroiled in a relentless legal battle that illuminates, with the power of a million suns, the irreconcilable clash between Christian sexual ethics and our American First Amendment religious freedoms and the aggressive efforts of the radical LGBT lobby to conquer, subjugate, and humiliate Christians in the West. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed a suit that was just one part of an interminable lawfare harassment campaign waged against the cake maker. “Jack Phillips won another legal victory for religious...

he Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who has been embroiled in legal battles for more than a decade over his refusal to create certain custom cakes due to his religious beliefs. The decision comes as a relief for Phillips, who has faced ongoing legal challenges since 2012, when he first declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, citing his faith.

CV NEWS FEED // The Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed against a Christian baker who refused to make a pro-transgender cake, on the grounds that the plaintiff did not follow the proper filing process. This is the third such legal case in the past 12 years related to Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, and his right to free speech. “Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone,” stated Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Jake Warner in an October 8 press release after the decision....

The Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Evangelical Christian baker Jack Phillips over his refusal on religious grounds to make a cake celebrating a trans-identified individual's so-called gender transition. In a decision released Tuesday, the state's highest court ruled 4-3 to dismiss the lawsuit against the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop filed by Autumn Scardina, a biological male who identifies as a woman. Justice Melissa Hart authored the majority opinion, arguing that Scardina's discrimination claim was not properly processed before the lawsuit against Phillips was filed. "Could the district court properly consider the claims of discrimination presented here? In...

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips’ over 12-year legal battle to defend his free speech rights ended Tuesday.The Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Phillips after finding the attorney who challenged him in 2017 for declining to create a cake celebrating a male-to-female gender transition did not properly file the case.“Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone,” ADF senior counsel Jake Warner said in a statement. “Free speech is for everyone.”The attorney, Autumn Scardina, called Masterpiece Cakeshop to request a “a pink birthday cake with blue frosting” symbolizing...

Colorado's Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed on procedural grounds a lawsuit against a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a transgender woman. Justices declined to weigh in on the free speech issues that brought the case to national attention. Baker Jack Phillips was sued by attorney Autumn Scardina in 2017 after his Denver-area bakery refused to make a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate her gender transition. Justices said in the 6-3 majority opinion that Scardina had not exhausted her options to seek redress through another court before filing her lawsuit. The case was among several...

'These heroes were callously tossed aside'.. Multiple times already Colorado, led by homosexual Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, has been cited for its "hostility" to Christianity. It happened in the state's attack on the faith of specialty baker Jack Phillips. Then the same issue arose in a fight involving state censorship of a web designer... Both times the state got slapped hard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Now it's another court, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a division of the state, the University of Colorado, That court now has ruled that CU's Anshutz School of Medicine's policies that...

For more than 10 years, a Colorado law has been misused to punish me for something I didn’t do. For more than 30 years, my family and I have quietly operated Masterpiece Cakeshop, baking treats and specializing in custom-designed cakes to celebrate special occasions. I welcome everyone into my shop, treat them with respect, and if they ask for a particular kind of custom cake, do my best to create something beautiful and memorable. Like most of us, I too have sincere beliefs that guide and inspire my life, so I can only create custom cakes that will express or...

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips has scored a victory of sorts in his ongoing lawsuit for refusing to bake a gender transition cake, with the Colorado Supreme Court agreeing to hear his appeal.Baker Jack Phillips decorates a cake in his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., on Sep. 21, 2017. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)Last week, in a win for Mr. Phillips' years-long legal fight, the Colorado Supreme Court finally agreed to hear his case after a lower court held that Colorado authorities can force the baker to put messages on cakes that violate his personal beliefs, according to a case announcements posting.Mr. Phillips,...

I’ve been writing about Denver-area baker Jack Phillips for over a decade now. It’s clear to me he’s going to be badgered into the grave by authoritarians intent on punishing him for thought crimes. From the first time his name appeared in the news until this day, the media have misled the public about him, about the case, and about the law. The latest chapter in Phillips’ Kafkaesque saga involves a transgendered lawyer named Autumn Scardina, who demanded Phillips create a pink cake with blue frosting to help celebrate a “gender transition.” As expected, Phillips, who’d already spent years fighting...

Last week the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision that Lorie Smith, a Colorado-based Christian graphic artist and web designer, did not have to create content that violated her beliefs. In response, Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, tweeted, “perhaps gay stylists, designers, caterers, and planners should start withholding services from Christian conservatives and see where that goes.” After all, Jeffery reasoned, if a Christian can create content for a gay couple, surely gay professionals can decline services to Christian conservatives.More extreme was the reaction of actor Michael Imperioli who posted on Instagram, “I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes...

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that he violated anti-discrimination laws by refusing to create a cake celebrating a gender transition. Phillips and his attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a petition on Thursday with the state’s highest court. In January, the state Court of Appeals ruled in favor of attorney Autumn Scardina, who requested from Phillips a blue and pink birthday cake to celebrate transitioning from male to female. Scardina’s request was made in 2018 on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear...

Denver, Colo., Jan 26, 2023 / 15:45 pm A Colorado appellate court has ruled against a baker who appeared in court once again for declining to make a cake that contradicts his religious beliefs. While Jack Phillips’ successful U.S. Supreme Court case concerned his refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake, he now faces a civil lawsuit for declining to make a cake celebrating a purported gender transition of a transgender-identifying attorney. In a Thursday decision, a Colorado Court of Appeals three-judge panel sided with Autumn Scardina, a man who identifies as a transgender woman. Scardina said Phillips and his...

“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...

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Monday whether Colorado baker Jack Phillips was forced to undergo “reeducation” after refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Gorsuch’s question came during oral arguments in the case of 303 Creative v. Elenis. Lorie Smith, who owns 303 Creative and provides graphic and web design services, sued the state in 2016 because she did not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, arguing the law violated her First Amendment rights. The case is similar to that of a 2018 case involving baker Jack Phillips, also from Colorado, who refused to make...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A Kern County judge ruled Friday that Tastries Bakery owner Cathy Miller can not be forced to bake wedding cakes for same-sex couples. Judge Eric Bradshaw found Miller’s “pure and expressive speech is entitled to protection under the First Amendment.” The baking of a Tastries wedding cake is “labor-intensive” and “artistic,” Bradshaw said in his ruling Friday. “We applaud the court for this decision,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Charles LiMandri, partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, one of Miller’s attorneys. “The freedom to practice one’s religion is enshrined in the First Amendment, and the...

SCOTUS takes up another Colorado caseTRANSCRIPTIn tonight's In-Depth Report, another example of the Left's drive to compel speech is on the Supreme Court's docket. Jack Phillips, owner, Masterpiece Cakeshop: "I'm not judging these two gay men who came in. I'm just trying to preserve my right as an artist to decide which artistic endeavors I'm going to do and which ones I'm not." Following in the footsteps of Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips, another Colorado artist is asking the Supreme Court to provide relief from the state's anti-discrimination law. Lorie Smith is a website designer who sought to expand her...

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado baker who won a partial Supreme Court victory after refusing on religious grounds to make a gay couple’s wedding cake a decade ago is challenging a separate ruling he violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. A lawyer for Jack Phillips on Wednesday urged Colorado’s appeals court — largely on procedural grounds — to overturn last year’s ruling in a lawsuit brought by a transgender woman. The woman, Autumn Scardina, called Phillips’ suburban Denver cake shop in 2017 requesting a birthday cake that had blue frosting on...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new clash involving religion and the rights of LGBT people. The high court said Tuesday it would hear the case of Colorado-based web designer Lorie Smith. Smith offers graphic and website design services and wants to expand to wedding website services, but she says her religious beliefs would lead her to decline any request from a same-sex couple to design a wedding website. She also wants to post a statement on her website about her beliefs, but that would run afoul of a Colorado anti-discrimination law. Smith had argued...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state will expand its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers to include booster shots, becoming the first state to require boosters for healthcare employees while also signaling that a growing number of institutions are increasingly aiming to mandate them.Hochul, a Democrat, said in a Friday news briefing that state healthcare workers are required to get the extra shots. The state will accept only medical—not religious—exemptions, consistent with previous mandates on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 vaccines.Under the mandate, healthcare workers will have to get boosters within two weeks of their eligibility. Recently, the Food and...