Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against Christian baker who refused to bake trans cake

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Jack Phillips reacts to Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative case

Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, reacts to Supreme Court case that insulated free speech protections for artists.

The Colorado Supreme Court dismissed yet another case Tuesday against Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who has been the target of several lawsuits over the last 12 years. The latest lawsuit accused Phillips of discriminating against a transgender attorney for refusing to bake a custom cake celebrating their gender transition.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the lawyer group representing Phillips, first defended Phillips in 2012 when he was sued for refusing to bake a custom cake celebrating a same-sex wedding because it violated his religious convictions.

"Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone," Jake Warner, ADF senior counsel, said in a statement.

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Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, manages his shop in Lakewood, Colo., Aug. 15, 2018. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

"Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in 303 Creative, 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."

While the state court did not issue an opinion regarding Phillips' First Amendment rights, it was dismissed on the grounds of violating a technicality, stating that plaintiff Autumn Scardina, a man identifying as a woman, did not properly file the lawsuit in Colorado.

"We granted review to determine, among other issues, whether [the attorney] properly filed [this] case," the Colorado Supreme Court wrote in its opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina. "We conclude that [the attorney] did not."

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Stock image of cakes in a display case (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

"The underlying constitutional question this case raises has become the focus of intense public debate: How should governments 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?" Justice Melissa Hart wrote in the Colorado Supreme Court’s majority opinion. 

"We cannot answer that question."

On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court revealed it would hear Phillips' initial case — which he won in 2018 after Colorado tried to force him to make a custom cake for a same-sex wedding — the transgender attorney contacted Phillips' shop for a custom order to celebrate a gender transition. Phillips' declined.

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A transgender attorney wanted Jack Phillips to bake a celebratory gender-transition cake. (Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)

The attorney called again later to request a second cake, this one featuring Satan smoking marijuana, to "correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking," according to the ADF news release.

"Phillips politely declined both requests because the cakes express messages that violate his core beliefs," ADF stated. "The attorney then filed the most recent lawsuit, threatening to continue harassing Phillips until he is punished. Phillips serves people from all backgrounds. Like many artists, he decides to create custom cakes based on what they will express, not who requests them."