12-Year Ordeal May Be Over for Christian Baker As Discrimination Lawsuit Dismissed by Colorado High Court

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

There is a great line from a movie that says, "There ain't nothing more dangerous in this world than a fool with a cause." It describes the left perfectly. They are so "tolerant" that they will not be happy, they will not stop until their agenda, what they want, is forced upon the rest of the nation. Fortunately, things like the First Amendment are in their way. For Colorado baker and business owner Jack Phillips, the First Amendment has been his best friend. 

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On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a case on procedural grounds against Phillips, who is a Christian who refused to bake a cake for a transgender woman named Autumn Scardina. In a 6-3 decision, the Justices ruled that Scardina had not exhausted all of her legal options for restitution through another court before filing her suit. Justice Melissa Hart, writing for the majority, said, “We express no view on the merits of these claims."

Phillip's attorney, Jake Warner, with the Alliance Defending Freedom, argued before the court that Phillip's refusal to bake the cake was protected by his First Amendment free speech rights. Warner said of his client and the case, “Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone.”

When Jake Warner says that Jack Phillips has been dragged through the courts for over a decade, he is not kidding. Jack Phillip's ordeal began back in 2012 when a same-sex couple asked if he would bake a cake for their wedding celebration. The couple had been married in Massachusetts because gay marriage was not yet legal in Colorado at the time. When Phillips refused to bake the cake, citing his Christian beliefs against gay marriage, the couple filed a discrimination complaint against him and his business, Masterpiece Cakeshop, with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. 

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The case of Jack Phillips's religious freedom versus what others viewed as a clear case of discrimination dragged through the court system, ultimately landing in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. In a decisive 7-2 ruling, the Justices focused on what they saw as "anti-religious bias" on the part of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and found that the Commission had violated Phillip's First Amendment rights.

But then a funny thing happened on Jack Phillips's way to being left alone. On the very same day in 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court announced they would hear his first case, along came a woman named Autumn Scardina. Scardina asked Phillips if he would bake a cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside to celebrate her gender transition. Again, Phillips cited his Christian beliefs and said he would not make the cake. Not surprisingly, Scardina sued. If there is any doubt as to what is going on here, in court documents, Scardina “promised Phillips that, were this suit dismissed, Scardina would call Phillips the next day to request another cake and start another lawsuit.”

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Colorado's Supreme Court Justices declared that Scardina's activism got the better of her when she failed to challenge a 2019 settlement between Phillips and state attorneys in 2019 for legal actions brought by Phillips that Scardina was not involved in. She then pursued the suit against Phillips and his business on her own. Lower courts ruled in 2021 that Phillips had violated Colorado's anti-discrimination law, and the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that because Scardina had not requested any writing on the cake, there was no free speech protected by the First Amendment issue.

Is this truly the end for Jack Phillips? We certainly hope so. Jack Phillips and his Christian beliefs have been dragged through the court system for 12 years. The left in America has declared war on Christianity, and with the help of the Democrat Party, they don't need to hide it. They have made an example of Jack Phillips and have tried to destroy his business. If the freedom of speech and the freedom to believe and worship as we choose does not prevail in America, we can only guess who will be targeted next.

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