It Never Ends: Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner Loses Appeal After Latest Lawfare From the Alphabet People

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday against Jack Phillips (Masterpiece Cakeshop), arguing that he broke the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act in refusing to bake a birthday cake for a gender transition celebration.

Critics of the ruling point to Phillips’ earlier “win” activists continue to target the baker because of the narrow ruling by the Supreme Court in Phillips’ favor. In 2017, former Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that some have argued essentially said Phillips could have lost his Supreme Court case if it hadn’t been for Colorado officials openly disparaging Phillips and his Christian views.

Critics say that Phillips’ narrow decision allowed him to continue being persecuted. Quin Hillyer, Washington Examiner argued that the Supreme Court’s “search for the narrowest possible result merely invited further, seemingly endless rounds of new litigation.”

The latest lawsuit against Phillips comes from an activist attorney, Autumn Scardina, in Colorado who called Masterpiece Cakeshop on the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take his prior case – in which he was accused of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. Phillips was requested to make a custom pink cake with blue frosting. This was in honor of a gender change. Phillips was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The attorney called back to request a cake that depicted Satan smoking marijuana. “correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking.” Phillips refused to bake either of these cakes because of the messages they contained. The activist has filed suit.

“Naturally, Colorado’s courts ignored the patently offensive request for a Satan cake and instead again held Phillips responsible for illegal discrimination based on gender, his religious objections notwithstanding,” Hillyer wrote. “Today’s affirmation by the appeals court of the lower court’s ruling takes ample advantage of the loophole left open by the Supreme Court while cherry-picking from other Supreme Court religious liberty decisions to reach its desired, anti-Phillips conclusion.”

PoliMath, a prominent conservative politician, also took to Twitter to blame the Supreme Court for Masterpiece Cakeshop’s legal troubles.

“The result of John Roberts pushing for the narrowest possible ruling in the earlier Masterpiece case is that they continued persecuting Jack Phillips for years,” PoliMath tweets “They will continue to do this to him until he dies.”

John Roberts pushed for the narrowest possible decision in the Masterpiece case earlier, which resulted in Jack Phillips being persecuted for many years.

They will do this until he is dead. https://t.co/W8z3JF4iTv

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) January 26, 2023

Thursday’s appeals court argued that Phillips refused to bake the cake because he learned from the client that he was transgender. He wanted the cake to commemorate his birthday and gender transition.

“Thus, it was Scardina’s transgender status, and her desire to use the cake in celebration of that status, that caused Masterpiece and Phillips to refuse to provide the cake,” The court wrote that it argued for the cake “expressed no message.”

ADL however argues That “Phillips works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it.”

“Over a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to say things he does not believe. Then an activist attorney continued that crusade,” The ADF released a statement. “This cruelty must stop. One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that all Americans should be free to say what they believe, even if the government disagrees with those beliefs.”