FILE – Colorado lawyer Autumn Scardina poses for a photo outside the Ralph Carr Colorado Judicial Center, Oct. 5, 2022, in Denver. (AP Photo/Colleen Slevin, File). Inset: FILE – Jack Phillips, who’s case was heard by the Supreme Court several years ago after he objected to designing a wedding cake for a gay couple, speaks to supporters outside the Supreme Court, Dec. 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
The clash between a Christian cake baker in Colorado and his potential LGBTQ+ customers continues to escalate.
The Colorado Supreme Court has announced that it will consider the case of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop who in 2017 refused to make a cake celebrating a transgender woman’s birthday. Autumn Scardina said that her request for a pink cake with blue frosting — designed to celebrate her affirmation as a transgender woman — was denied by Phillips’ business.
The state’s civil rights commission found that this amounted to illegal discrimination under Colorado law and issued a $500 fine — a move that was upheld by a Denver judge in 2021.
Phillips appealed, and on Tuesday, the highest court in the Centennial State signaled its intention to hear the matter in the coming months.
The court identified the three issues that it would consider in its review:
Whether Scardina’s CADA claim is barred because Scardina did not appeal the Commission’s dismissal of the administrative complaint before suing Masterpiece Cakeshop, Inc. and Phillips.
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Whether the decision by Masterpiece Cakeshop, Inc. and Phillips not to create a pink cake with blue frosting that was to be used to celebrate a gender transition violated CADA’s prohibition on transgender-status discrimination.
Whether the decision by Masterpiece Cakeshop, Inc. and Phillips not to create a pink cake with blue frosting that was to be used to celebrate a gender transition was protected by the First Amendment.
Phillips initially received national attention more than a decade ago for his refusal to create a custom cake to celebrate a same-sex wedding in 2012.
According to Phillips, his Christian beliefs preclude him from creating a cake that features a “message” of gender that he opposes. His religious-based objection became the basis of a lawsuit for violation of Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, and the litigation made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.
Ultimately, Phillips prevailed in the case, although not entirely on religious expression grounds; instead, the justices held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission exhibited “clear and impermissible hostility” toward Phillips’ sincere religious beliefs.
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