‘Enough Is Enough’: Perpetually Harassed Colorado Baker Gets Transgender Suit Dismissed
A Colorado baker named Jack Phillips achieved a legal victory when the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed against him by transgender attorney Autumn Scardina. The lawsuit stemmed from Phillips’ refusal to create a cake celebrating Scardina’s gender transition, which he argued violated his First Amendment rights. The court dismissed the case on procedural grounds, asserting that Scardina should have contested a previous settlement that Phillips reached with the Colorado Civil Rights Division instead of initiating a new lawsuit.
Phillips has been embroiled in legal battles for over a decade due to his refusal to bake cakes that conflict with his religious beliefs. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor regarding a similar case where he declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. His legal team, supported by the Alliance Defending Freedom, celebrated the latest ruling and emphasized the need to end what they termed relentless harassment. They argued that individuals should not be forced to create works that contradict their beliefs, highlighting broader concerns regarding religious freedoms and allegations of targeted harassment against Christians in the business sector.
A Christian baker who has been the target of a 12-year lawfare campaign by LGBT activists has scored a victory after the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed yet another case against him this week, for refusing to bake a pro-transgender cake.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court tossed a lawsuit filed by “transgender” attorney, Autumn Scardina, on procedural grounds after he sued Jack Phillips — the Christian owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood — for refusing to make a cake celebrating Scardina’s “gender transition.”
Phillips had argued that forcing him to bake a pro-transgender cake violates his free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The state high court sidestepped the merits by dismissing the case on procedural grounds, saying Scardina should’ve challenged a prior settlement reached between Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Division (which excluded Scardina) in appellate court, instead of filing a whole new lawsuit, according to NBC News.
As a reminder, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Phillips’ favor after he refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding, citing religious grounds.
He was then sued again in 2021 by “transgender” lawyer Autumn Scardina, who had asked Phillips back in 2017 to make a cake with blue frosting on the outside and pink frosting on the inside to celebrate his “gender transition.”
Phillips’ attorneys, who work with the Christian legal advocacy group the Alliance Defending Freedom, issued a statement celebrating the Colorado high court’s ruling.
“Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have been defending Phillips since 2012, when he was first sued for declining to create a custom cake celebrating a same-sex wedding because it violated his religious beliefs,” the ADF said Tuesday.
“Around that same time, the attorney who filed the most recent lawsuit against Phillips first contacted him, calling him a hypocrite and bigot.”
Congratulations to @ADFLegal! After 12 years–yes 12 years–of lawfare harassment, it seems Jack’s ordeal is finally over.
Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit harassing cake artist Jack Phillipshttps://t.co/rSH1Cp9uUi
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) October 8, 2024
Jake Warner, ADF senior counsel, said the relentless harassment of Phillips must stop.
“Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade,” Warner said. “It’s time to leave him alone.”
He continued: “Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in [303 Creative LLC v. Elenis], the government cannot force artists to express messages they don’t believe. In this case, an attorney demanded that Jack create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female.”
“Because that cake admittedly expresses a message and because Jack cannot express that message for anyone, the government cannot punish Jack for declining to express it. The First Amendment protects that decision,” he explained.
Regardless of your opinion on the merits of this absurd lawsuit, it’s obvious that the frivolous prosecution of Jack Phillips is targeted harassment.
After all, he’s not the only baker in Colorado. Normally, if a store doesn’t carry an item you want, you simply go to another vendor. That’s what the “transgender” attorney who sued Phillips should have done.
Instead, he literally tried to make a federal case out of his personal vendetta against this Christian baker, seeking to force him to bake a cake that violates his religious beliefs.
Why didn’t Scardina go to a Muslim bakery and ask them to bake a pro-transgender cake?
The blatant targeting of a Christian bakery spotlights how accepted Christian persecution is in the United States, which is 68 percent Christian.
These kinds of frivolous lawsuits challenging Christian beliefs are a slap in the face to all Christians and, indeed, all people of faith.
After all, should a Muslim bakery be forced to make a bacon-infused birthday cake?
Should kosher bakeries be required to make cakes violating Jewish dietary laws or to bake a cake with a swastika centerpiece?
Should a black baker be forced to bake a cake celebrating the Ku Klux Klan?
Why is a Christian baker being repeatedly challenged to make cakes that infringe on his religious beliefs?
The fact that the public and the corporate media are not sounding the alarm about this targeted, anti-Christian persecution and egregious hypocrisy should outrage all Americans.
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