Forcing independent business owners to provide goods or perform services in violation of their consciences defies the intent and spirit of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, a California judge recently ruled.
The case centered around Bakersfield cake baker Cathy Miller, of Tastries Bakery, who was sued by a lesbian couple after she refused to bake a wedding cake for them. While the prosecution tried to argue that Miller's refusal represented unlawful discrimination, Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe decided otherwise.
In Judge Lampe's ruling, refusing to sell an already-made wedding cake to the lesbian couple would have been impermissible under the law. But because the lesbian couple in question demanded that Miller make them a whole new, customized cake made for their so-called wedding, this represents a violation of Miller's free speech rights.
A wedding cake, and even one that doesn't contain a customized inscription, "is an artistic expression by the person making it," Judge Lampe stated in his ruling, as reported by The San Francisco Chronicle.
"The state asks this court to compel Miller against her will and religion to allow her artistic expression in celebration of marriage to be co-opted to promote the message desired by same-sex marital partners," Judge Lampe added, striking down a state agency's request that tried to force Miller into baking the cake against her will.
"The right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment outweighs the state's interest in ensuring a freely accessible marketplace."
Forcing anyone to do anything that violates his or her conscience is unconstitutional
It's a case we've seen time and time again in the U.S., but one that's often gone in a much different direction. In Colorado, for instance, the state's Court of Appeals ruled back in 2015 that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood (a suburb of Denver) was not permitted to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple that made similar demands.
The court basically decided that the demands of the protected LGBT class somehow trump the free speech rights of Christians who believe that homosexual "marriage" constitutes an affront to their faith. Phillips is one such individual who, rather than violate his conscience, chose to not bake the gay couple a cake bearing a message of support, stating plainly in his defense:
"We still have rights as American citizens to our faith and free speech rights."
When the tables are turned, however, then it's somehow okay to discriminate. As you may recall, nine-year-old Dylan Harbin was refused a birthday cake from every shop in town, simply because he requested that it bear an image of a "Make America Great Again" hat in support of President Donald Trump.
Dylan's mother searched and searched for a place that would bake the cake, only to end up baking it herself when she came up dry. And yet, no lawsuits were filed, and no courts intervened to declare that the bakeries in young Dylan's area had to bake him a Trump cake. Life went on because, to non-snowflakes, nobody in society is required to do things that they don't want to do.
But to the LGBT mafia, everyone must be forced to comply with whatever whimsical "rights" they decide to invent on any given day – and they typically know how to take advantage of the courts to enforce compliance.
But not in Bakersfield; not this time.
"Cathy would never discriminate against anyone who walks through her bakery's doors," argued Charles LiMandri from the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, a religious conservative non-profit group. "She will gladly serve anyone, including same-sex couples. But Cathy will not use her artistic talents to express messages that conflict with her sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage."
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.