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Colorado Court Takes On Baker's Trans Cake Controversy

Jack Phillips is again embroiled in a legal fight over LGBTQ issues
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 3, 2023 2:01 PM CDT
Colorado Court Takes On Baker's Trans Cake Controversy
Jack Phillips, whose 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)

On the heels of a US Supreme Court victory this summer for a graphic artist who didn't want to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, Colorado's highest court said Tuesday it will now hear the case of a Christian baker who refused to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. The announcement by the Colorado Supreme Court is the latest development in the yearslong legal saga involving Jack Phillips and LGBTQ+ rights, per the AP. Phillips won a partial victory before the US Supreme Court in 2018 after refusing to make a gay couple's wedding cake but was later sued by Autumn Scardina, a transgender woman, who asked his suburban Denver bakery to make a pink cake with blue frosting for her birthday. It refused after Scardina explained it would celebrate her transition from male to female.

The case involves the state's anti-discrimination law that makes it illegal to refuse to provide services to people based on protected characteristics like race, religion, or sexual orientation. The key issue in the case is whether the cakes Phillips creates are a form of speech and whether forcing him to make a cake with a message he does not support is a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech. Earlier this year, the Colorado Court of Appeals sided with Scardina in the case, ruling that the cake was not a form of speech. It also found that the anti-discrimination law that makes it illegal to refuse to provide services to people based on protected characteristics like race, religion, or sexual orientation does not violate business owners' right to practice or express their religion.

Scardina, an attorney, attempted to order her cake on the same day in 2017 that the Supreme Court announced it would hear Phillips' appeal in the wedding cake case. During trial, she testified that she wanted to "challenge the veracity" of Phillips' statements that he would serve LGBTQ+ customers. Before filing her lawsuit, Scardina first filed a complaint against Phillips with the state and the civil rights commission, which found probable cause that he had discriminated against her. Phillips then filed a federal lawsuit against Colorado, accusing it of a "crusade to crush" him by pursuing the complaint.

(More LGBTQ stories.)

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