The Supreme Court agreed this Monday to hear about the case surrounding a Colorado bakery that has refused to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. The case will conclude whether the Denver baker unlawfully discriminated against the couple.
Previous courts ruled that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, violated Colorado’s public accommodations law, prohibiting the refusal of service to customers based on race, sex, marital status or sexual orientation.
There are also similar lawsuits floating around from florists, calligraphers and others who believe they are right to refuse service based on their religious beliefs not allowing them to provide services to same sex customers. These lawsuits however, have had little success against the discrimination laws.
Under US state law, to refuse such service, or even have both same sex parents on a birth certificate, is to deny married same-sex couples the complete “constellation of benefits” that the government has linked to marriage in the US.
The Washington Supreme Court found that Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Wash., violated a state civil rights law that bars discrimination in public businesses on the basis of sexual orientation. The court also ruled that the law does not infringe on her free speech.
