Supreme Court remands case of Oregon bakers who refused to make same-sex wedding cake
The U.S. Supreme Court told Oregon courts Monday to take another look at the case of former bakery owners who were fined $135,000 for refusing to bake a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
The Supreme Court vacated an Oregon Court of Appeals decision upholding the fine and told the Oregon courts to consider the case in light of its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision in June 2018.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission violated the free exercise rights of a Christian baker, Jack Phillips, by showing hostility to his explained religious reasons for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Masterpiece Cakeshop left unresolved whether a baker’s “sincerely held religious beliefs” can trump neutral laws that apply to everyone.
The Oregon cake bakers, Melissa and Aaron Klein, refused to bake the cake because of their religious belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. They were fined for violating the state’s public accommodations law. Their cert petition claimed that the fine forced them to close their suburban Portland business, Sweet Cakes by Melissa.
The case is Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.
Hat tip to SCOTUSblog.
See also:
ABA Journal: “Speech, religion and bias all weighed in Masterpiece Cakeshop case”
ABAJournal.com: “ABA urges SCOTUS to rule against baker who refused to make wedding cake for gay couple”
