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Cake Baker Wins Again

Colorado drops latest charges against Jack Phillips, vindicated last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Colorado Civil Rights Commission Tuesday dismissed its most recent charges against Christian cake baker Jack C. Phillips. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys had filed a federal lawsuit, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Elenis, on behalf of the Lakewood, Colorado, baker after the state began to prosecute him. The suit came even after last June’s U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in which justices determined that Phillips couldn’t be forced to bake a specialty cake celebrating the marriage of two homosexual men.

“The state of Colorado is dismissing its case against Jack, stopping its six-and-a-half years of hostility toward him for his beliefs,” says Kristen K. Waggoner, senior vice president of ADF, which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a diverse society like ours. But the state’s demonstrated and ongoing hostility toward Jack because of his beliefs is undeniable.”

Waggoner argued on behalf of Phillips at the U.S. Supreme Court last year. She grew up in the Assemblies of God and is the daughter of Clint M. Behrends, superintendent of the AG-affiliated Cedar Park Christian Schools in Bothell, Washington.

The prosecution of Phillips that the commission decided to drop began after an attorney who targeted Phillips complained to the state about the cake artist’s decision not to create a cake designed pink on the inside and blue on the outside to reflect and celebrate a gender transition. The attorney who requested that cake later asked Phillips to design a cake with satanic themes and images.

“This is the second time the state has launched a failed effort to prosecute him,” Waggoner says. “While it finally appears to be getting the message that its anti-religious hostility has no place in our country, the state’s decision to target Jack forced him to spend years tied up in legal proceedings.”

Phillips consistently has declared that he won’t refuse service to anyone who wants to buy baked goods in Masterpiece Cakeshop. However, he draws the line at creating special items celebrating occasions conflicting with his evangelical faith.

“I simply can’t celebrate events or express messages that conflict with my religious beliefs,” Phillips says. “The Supreme Court affirmed that government hostility against people of faith is unconstitutional, and that Colorado was hostile to my faith.”