CO Supreme Court Dismisses Case Against Christian Cake Baker

For twelve years, Christian cake baker Jack Phillips has been the victim of relentless lawfare from antagonistic, radical leftists who wanted to force him to abandon his religious values. But on Tuesday, the state Supreme Court dismissed the third lawfare challenge against him.

Citing procedural errors, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina. The heart of the case was whether Phillips should be forced — against his sincerely held religious convictions — to design a cake for a mentally ill man, Autumn Scardina, who believes he is a woman. The requested cake would have been pink on the inside and blue on the outside, expressing a message that Phillips says violates his religious beliefs.

The case was “calibrated to set Phillips up,” as David Harsanyi wrote in these pages. On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up a different case involving Phillips in 2017 (SCOTUS later ruled in Phillips’ favor), Scardina requested a cake “to celebrate and symbolize a gender transition,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom. Phillips declined, and “a few months later, Scardina also asked for a cake with Satan smoking a joint, which [Phillips] declined as well,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom. Scardina would later admit he made these requests to “test” Phillips, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.

Ultimately the state court dismissed the case Tuesday.

“The underlying constitutional question this case raises has become the focus of intense public debate: How should government balance the rights of transgender individuals to be free from discrimination in places of public accommodation with the rights of religious business owners when they are operating in the public market?” Colorado Supreme Court Justice Melissa Hart wrote for the majority.

“We cannot answer that question however, because of a threshold issue of administrative law and statutory interpretation: Could the district court properly consider the claims of discrimination presented here? In light of this dispute’s procedural journey, it could not,” Hart continued. The majority held Scardina should have appealed a Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s decision rather than directly sue Phillips. The court found Scardina could not bring a new claim.

Phillips has been the victim of lawfare since 2012 all for being a Christian. A gay couple requested a custom wedding cake, but Phillips informed the couple he could not create a cake celebrating their sexual preference since the cake would express a view that violated his religious beliefs about holy matrimony. Notably, Phillips was more than happy to do business with the couple for any other item in his shop.

As Zachary Mettler previously wrote in these pages, “Jack Phillips serves all people. He will gladly sell anything in his shop to anyone — including people who identify as LGBT. But what he won’t do is propagate messages that violate his core beliefs. That’s why he’s also refused to create custom cakes celebrating Halloween or cakes advocating for the use of marijuana. He’s even declined to create cakes that denigrate people, including people who identify as LGBT.”