After six years, the state of Colorado has finally announced it will dismiss its case against Jack Phillips, of Masterpiece Cakeshop fame. This is a victory not only for his bakery, but for the cause of religious freedom and will hopefully go a long way toward quashing government animus towards religious beliefs.
Even though the Supreme Court partially upheld Phillip’s decision not to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple on the grounds that it violated his religious beliefs, he still faced legal challenges. Autumn Scardina, a Denver-based transgender attorney, filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission against Phillips, saying that his refusal to bake a cake honoring the lawyer’s transition was discriminatory. Phillips fired back with a lawsuit to protect himself.
Finally, Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which has been plaguing Phillips and his religious freedom for years, agreed to end the lawsuit. This agreement now means that all ongoing legal disputes are finally resolved.
While it’s a relief that these legal challenges are now resolved, there are two important lessons here.
First, the state, via Colorado Civil Rights Commission, had no business pursuing Phillips with the bigoted animosity of a schoolyard bully, what with all its attorneys and legal maneuvers blazing like a tank running over a foxhole with a couple soldiers armed with hand grenades.
In an e-mail, Alliance Defending Freedom, the firm that represented Phillips at the Supreme Court said, “Just last week, ADF attorneys uncovered statements from a 2018 public meeting in which two commissioners voiced their support for comments that a previous commissioner, Diann Rice, made in 2015. Those comments, which the U.S. Supreme Court sternly condemned in its ruling in favor of Phillips last year, called religious freedom ‘a despicable piece of rhetoric.’”
Publicly and privately, the commission relentlessly targeted Phillips for one reason and one reason only: Because he was a Christian man who ran a business and did so with honor and integrity.
Second, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was so dedicated to compel Phillips to do something that violated his religious beliefs, in two separate attempts, the only way he could shake them off his back was to stand firm with legal counsel, all the way up to the Supreme Court, or to file his own lawsuit against them. While it appears this was necessary, this shouldn’t have to happen for a person’s First Amendment religious liberties to remain intact.
Anti-religious bigotry, even that which is disguised as a defense of minority groups, has no place in the United States. I’m glad to see Phillips can finally spend his time and resources baking cakes in peace.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
