• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Baker Jack Phillips decorates a cake in his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., Sept. 21, 2017. (CNS photo/Rick Wilking, Reuters)

Colorado baker fights ruling over cake celebrating gender transition

October 10, 2022
By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Supreme Court, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Colorado baker Jack Phillips, whose refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake on religious grounds went to the Supreme Court, is currently fighting a ruling that he violated the state’s anti-discrimination law for refusing to bake a cake to celebrate a gender transition.

In arguments before Colorado’s appeals court Oct. 5, Phillips’ attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom urged the court to overturn a ruling issued last year against their client on procedural grounds and said the court should uphold Phillips’ First Amendment rights.

Phillips was sued by a transgender woman, Autumn Scardina, who ordered a pink cake with blue frosting from Phillips’ shop, Masterpiece Cakeshop in 2017.

During the 2021 trial, according to The Associated Press, Phillips said he believes someone cannot change genders and he did not celebrate “somebody who thinks that they can.”

Baker Jack Phillips decorates a cake in his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., Sept. 21, 2017. (CNS photo/Rick Wilking, Reuters)

His attorney Jake Warner has said in a statement that requiring Phillips to create a cake with a message contrary to his religious beliefs violates his free speech rights.

Scardina initially filed a complaint against Phillips with the state and the civil rights commission, which found probable cause that Phillips had discriminated against her. Phillips, in turn, filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Colorado saying it was engaged in a “crusade to crush” him by pursuing Scardina’s complaint.

AP reported that during last year’s trial over the lawsuit against the baker, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones rejected Phillips’ argument that making the cake would constitute compelled speech.

The judge said the cake was simply a product and couldn’t be withheld from people protected by the state’s anti-discrimination law. He said Phillips’ refusal to provide the cake was “inextricably intertwined” with his refusal to recognize Scardina as a woman.

The cake case certainly has echoes of the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop case where the Supreme Court narrowly sided with Phillips in its 7-2 ruling.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had violated the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom in its initial ruling against the baker, who refused to make a wedding cake for the same-sex couple.

But he also said the opinion had a limited scope and “must await further elaboration.”

The court said Phillips’ contention “has a significant First Amendment speech component and implicates his deep and sincere religious beliefs. In this context the baker likely found it difficult to find a line where the customers’ rights to goods and services became a demand for him to exercise the right of his own personal expression for their message, a message he could not express in a way consistent with his religious beliefs.”

The Supreme Court will get a chance to revisit the broader issues raised here in a case it will hear this term about a Colorado graphic designer, Lorie Smith, who does not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples based on her Christian beliefs about marriage. Smith also is being defended by Alliance Defending Freedom.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined by the Colorado Catholic Conference and other religious groups, have sided with the designer as they did with the baker five years ago.

In an amicus brief, they said the case gives the court the chance to clarify free speech issues it said the justices fell short of doing in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

The USCCB’s brief said there is a “pressing need for the court to clarify how the compelled speech doctrine applies to wedding-vendor cases and other disputes.”

It also said the current case “provides an appropriate and especially important opportunity to invoke free speech protections again to address the ongoing tensions in wedding-vendor cases and in the current cultural context more broadly” and implored the court to “protect individuals from compelled speech and to provide space in the public square for minority voices.”


Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim

Read More Supreme Court

Supreme Court blocks lower court’s restrictions on abortion pill, leaving drug on market

Supreme Court hears arguments over Christians’ right not to work on Sunday

Supreme Court to consider whether employers who make Christians work Sunday violate religious liberty

U.S. Supreme Court admits ‘not possible’ to identify Dobbs draft leaker

Supreme Court keeps Title 42 restriction on border entry in place for now

Pandemic-era border policy allowed to stay in place for now

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Carol Zimmermann

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Assault outside Planned Parenthood office leaves pregnancy center employees shaken
  • Missionary of mercy priest: ‘Be Christ to all people’ in a world ‘hungry for the Word’
  • As COVID’s emergency phase ends, Catholic experts share takeaways for the church
  • Question Corner: Must I make my confession at the altar, as my pastor asks?
  • Nun’s incorruptible remains highlight rich heritage of Black Catholics in U.S., say experts

| Latest Local News |

Bishop Victor Galeone, former Archdiocese of Baltimore priest and bishop of St. Augustine, dies at 87

Assault outside Planned Parenthood office leaves pregnancy center employees shaken

RADIO INTERVIEW: The Prosperity Gospel

| Latest World News |

Archbishop: Months leading to synod are times for faithful to live response to divine grace ‘more intensely’

Numbers of Irish Catholics are falling rapidly; only half of Dublin residents say they’re Catholic

Nationals pitcher, Dodgers players join chorus criticizing LA team for plan to honor ‘Sisters’ drag group

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Movie Review: ‘Padre Pio’
  • Meet the new priests to be ordained in 2023
  • Archbishop: Months leading to synod are times for faithful to live response to divine grace ‘more intensely’
  • Numbers of Irish Catholics are falling rapidly; only half of Dublin residents say they’re Catholic
  • In June, let your garden honor the hearts of Jesus and Mary
  • Nationals pitcher, Dodgers players join chorus criticizing LA team for plan to honor ‘Sisters’ drag group
  • A host of sacramental statistics: Vatican tracks practice of the faith
  • Bishop Victor Galeone, former Archdiocese of Baltimore priest and bishop of St. Augustine, dies at 87
  • Videogame Review: ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED