Colorado Civil Rights Panel: Christian Bakers MUST Make Gay Wedding Cake

31 May, 2014 by Warner Todd Huston

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So much for having freedom of association, private property rights, or being allowed to observe religious convictions in Colorado because now a “civil rights panel” in Colorado’s state regulatory scheme is compelling a Christian bakery to a wedding cake for a gay wedding.

The Associated Press notes that Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission has issued its ruling:

Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission on Friday ordered a baker to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, finding his religious objections to the practice did not trump the state’s anti-discrimination statutes.

The unanimous ruling from the seven-member commission upheld an administrative law judge’s finding in December that Jack Phillips violated civil rights law when he refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in 2012. The couple sued.

“I can believe anything I want, but if I’m going to do business here, I’d ought to not discriminate against people,” Commissioner Raju Jaram said.

Phillips, a devout Christian who owns the Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, said the decision violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of his religion. “I will stand by my convictions until somebody shuts me down,” he told reporters after the ruling.

So much for the right to observe one’s religion. This will all eventually have to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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