Nearly two dozen states, six lawmakers in Colorado and many advocacy groups have filed statements in the Colorado Supreme Court supporting Jack Phillips of Masterpiece cakeshop.
He’s the baker to declined to create a same-sex wedding cake and a gender transition cake not because the customers were who they are, but because of the message the projects would deliver.
“Free speech is for everyone. No one should be forced to express a message that violates their core beliefs,” said an ADF lawyer. “More than a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to create art celebrating messages he does not believe. Then an activist attorney continued that crusade. This cruelty must stop. One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that Americans should not be compelled to express what they don’t believe.”
The original fight, over same-sex wedding cake, went all the want to the U.S. Supreme Court which gave the state a tongue-lashing for its attempt to control Phillips’ thoughts and its discrimination against Christianity.
The second case, where a “transgender” lawyer demanded Phillips create a cake praising that lifestyle choice, now is before the state Supreme Court.
“The same law being used to punish Jack is also at issue now at the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative v. Elenis. The court there should reject Colorado’s attempt to drive views it disfavors from the public square and affirm that graphic artist Lorie Smith and all artists—writers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, calligraphers, cake artists, and more—have the right to create freely without fear of government punishment. Cultural winds may shift, but freedom of speech is foundational to our self-government and to the free and fearless pursuit of truth,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer who contacted Phillips and then filed a complaint first wanted a pink and blue case, then a cake “depicting Satan smoking marijuana” in order to “correct the errors of “Phillips’] thinking.”
The legal team explained, “A brief led by Arkansas and joined by 21 other states explains that ‘Phillips’s religion teaches him that biological sex is immutable,’ so he cannot ‘create a cake symbolizing gender transition. The lower courts held that Phillips’ must create ‘the cake anyway. But compelling Phillips to speak contrary to his religious beliefs violates the First Amendment. This court should take Phillips’s case and reverse.”
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.