The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission read like a legislative roadmap for a new kind of pluralism. In a 7–2 decision, the Court found in favor of the Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
In making its decision the Court erased the penalties Colorado imposed on Jack Phillips in 2012 when he declined to make a cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins based on his sincerely held religious view that marriage was one man and one woman. Colorado ordered Phillips to undergo “comprehensive staff training,” change his business practices, and file “quarterly compliance reports” for two years because, the civil rights commission believed, Phillips' view of marriage was “despicable and merely rhetorical,” no different than justifying the Holocaust or slavery.
Read Full Article »
