Activist Wins Lawsuit Against Baker Who Refused to Make Transgender Cake
Court rules against Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips
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A court has ruled in favor of an activist who sued a baker for exercising his legal right to refuse to bake a cake for a customer to celebrate a "transgender transition."
On Tuesday, Baker Jack Phillips lost the case in a Colorado district court.
The lawsuit challenged Phillips' legal right to refuse to create a custom transgender cake for an activist, according to court documents.
The court case, Scardina v. Masterpiece Cakeshop, alleged that Phillips unlawfully refused service when the customer asked if the bakery could make a custom cake, court documents show.
The activist “elaborated that she wanted a birthday cake with a pink interior and a blue exterior” and “explained that the design was a reflection” of a “transition from male-to-female,” according to the lawsuit.
Phillips was sued because he said the requested cake “isn’t a cake we could make.”
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) took to Twitter to condemn the "shameful" court decision.
He slammed the ruling as “religious persecution.”
Shameful. This is religious persecution. Naked & unabashed.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 16, 2021
And it is lawless disregard of binding Supreme Court precedent. https://t.co/6vLc5zo0N5
“Jack Phillips serves all people but shouldn’t be forced to create custom cakes with messages that violate his conscience” the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) General Counsel, Kristen Waggoner wrote in a statement.
“In this case, an activist attorney demanded Jack create custom cakes in order to ‘test’ Jack and ‘correct the errors’ of his thinking, and the activist even threatened to sue Jack again if the case is dismissed for any reason.”
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Phillips has gone to court before in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission for refusing to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple, in which the Supreme Court ruled in his favor.
Phillips and the ADF say they plan to appeal Tuesday’s decision, according to ADF’s statement.
“This case and others—including the case of floral artist Barronelle Stutzman, whose petition is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court—represents a disturbing trend: the weaponization of our justice system to ruin those with whom the activists disagree,” Waggoner said.
“Radical activists and government officials are targeting artists like Jack because they won’t promote messages on marriage and sexuality that violate their core convictions,” Waggoner said.
“We will appeal this decision and continue to defend the freedom of all Americans to peacefully live and work according to their deeply held beliefs without fear of punishment.”
