{"id":136684,"date":"2018-06-04T09:31:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T15:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=136684"},"modified":"2018-06-04T10:07:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T16:07:52","slug":"scotus-rules-in-favor-of-the-masterpiece-baker-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/04\/scotus-rules-in-favor-of-the-masterpiece-baker-sort-of.html","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS rules in favor of the “Masterpiece” baker. Sort of."},"content":{"rendered":"

This ruling is being crowed (from the right) or denounced (from the left) as something quite a bit larger than I think it will turn out to be in the long run.\u00a0In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker in the Masterpiece<\/i> bake shop case. The baker had refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, despite Colorado law saying that businesses could not discriminate based on sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

But this isn’t a massive “religious freedom \/ bigotry trumps all else” ruling, as was being sought by the plaintiff’s deep-pocket supporters. The actual ruling<\/a>\u00a0is being described as “narrow” because it’s very dependent on the facts in this case, rather than being a new principle of law being established.<\/p>\n

The court found that<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Yes, states can and should protect the civil rights of gay people, and can do so under the Constitution.<\/li>\n
  2. The plaintiff’s religious beliefs do need to be taken into account, but were dismissed with hostility by the state commission that originally ruled against him.<\/li>\n
  3. The plaintiff had a basis in 2012 — prior to Obergefell<\/i> and the state okaying gay marriage — to believe that he was on defensible legal grounds in how he acted.<\/li>\n
  4. The commission had ruled very differently in the case of bakers refusing to produce anti<\/i>-gay cake decorations, declining to use some of the same rationales they made in those decisions in this one.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The court sort of leaves it open as to how to balanced sincere religious beliefs with Constitutionally permissible protection of individuals who might be discriminated against through those beliefs. That means we will likely see a lot more litigation around this matter. One thing the ruling points out is that showing hostility toward religious and philosophical beliefs (as commission members were shown to have done) makes it easier to stake a claim that religious freedom under the First Amendment is being violated. The court was able to find that the law was not being applied in a religiously neutral fashion, neither favoring nor disfavoring religious beliefs; the problem was not that the law itself was discriminatory, but the way the state commission went about applying it.<\/p>\n

    But the ruling also makes it clear that the current facts on the ground (esp. Obergefell)<\/i> have changed things since this matter first came up (i.e., the questionable legality of same-sex marriage is not something a future business person can use as a defense). It also strongly affirmed that “the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect gay persons and gay couples in the exercise of their civil rights.”<\/p>\n

    That’s not necessarily all a bad thing, even if the headlines around the case are disheartening.<\/p>\n


    \n
    \n<\/a>
    \n    Supreme Court rules for Colorado baker in same-sex wedding cake case – CNNPolitics<\/a><\/span>
    \nThe Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake to celebrate the marriage of a same sex couple because of a religious objection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Original Post<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This ruling is being crowed (from the right) or denounced (from the left) as something quite a bit larger than I think it will turn out to be in the long run.\u00a0In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker in the Masterpiece bake shop case. The baker had refused to … Continue reading “SCOTUS rules in favor of the “Masterpiece” baker. Sort of.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,350,25,718,9,378],"tags":[1200],"class_list":["post-136684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-civil-liberties","category-gay-stuff","category-marriage-equality","category-politics-law","category-intolerance-persecution","tag-lgbtq"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/p_30stk_supreme_court_1406125B15D.JPGimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127506,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/14\/cake-baker-is-still-guilty-of-unlawful-discrimination.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":0},"title":"Cake baker is (still) guilty of unlawful discrimination","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Aug-15 12:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld (again) the ruling that a Lakewood baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple wanting to celebrate their (Massachussetts) wedding is guilty of discrimination under Colorado law.'The appeals court wrote that the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act \"does not compel Masterpiece to support\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134599,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/07\/trump-sessions-justice-dept-files-brief-favor-anti-gay-baker.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":1},"title":"Trump \/ Sessions Justice Dept. files a brief in favor of anti-gay baker","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Sep-17 10:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because of course they did. The case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission will be heard before the Supreme Court. When Phillips designs and creates a custom wedding cake for a specific couple and a specific wedding, he plays an active role in enabling that ritual, and he associates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-18.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137817,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/14\/the-dire-menace-of-the-lgbtq-religion.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":2},"title":"The Dire Menace of the LGBTQ Religion","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-19 9:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The article is somewhat lengthy, but it's simultaneously hilarious and appalling, detailing a bill in the Kansas state legislature that basically asserts that LGBTQ is a \"religion\" (a subset of secular humanism, which was deemed a religious faith by SCOTUS in the early 60s), and therefore state law cannot favor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39990,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/11\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-nobody-expects-the-soviet-gay-inquisition-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":3},"title":"Bryan Fischer Is a Dolt (Nobody Expects the Soviet Gay Inquisition! edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Dec-13 7:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryan Fischer Is a Dolt (Nobody Expects the Soviet Gay Inquisition! edition)Hey, Bryan! Long time no natter. \u00a0How are things going as Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association (AFA)? \u00a0I hear tell you're be-bothered by a court ruling here in Colorado. Let's go look.Jack Phillips is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137949,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/25\/let-them-not-eat-cake.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":4},"title":"Let them not eat cake","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Feb-19 6:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Another day, another Colorado businessman who decides that providing professional services to a wedding he doesn't approve of should let him ignore state anti-discrimination law. In this case, it's a photographer \/ videographer deciding not to take pictures at a legal wedding between two women. \u201cHe asked, \u2018What\u2019s your fianc\u00e9e\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/couple.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/couple.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/couple.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/couple.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/couple.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23929,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/21\/prop-8-and-the-eventual-scotus-ruling.html","url_meta":{"origin":136684,"position":5},"title":"Prop 8 and the eventual SCOTUS ruling","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Nov-11 11:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone pretty much figures that the Nine Circuit will uphold the strike-down of Prop 8 in California, even with the proposition's supports granted standing by the California Supreme Court; the Ninth Circuit might not go along with that standing (Federal rules are more strict), but either way, it go to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136684"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136687,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136684\/revisions\/136687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}