US Supreme Court rules for baker who refused to design gay wedding cake
Washington, June 4: The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favour of a Colorado baker who refused to design a wedding cake for a same- sex couple, in a closelywatched case pitting gay rights against religious liberty.
In a 7- 2 decision, the high court ruled that while the Colorado Civil Rights Commission determined that Masterpiece Cakeshop must serve clients regardless of sexual orientation, the panel showed “clear and impermissible hostility towards the sincere religious beliefs” of the baker.
The commission therefore violated the baker Jack Phillips’s religious rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, the justices found.
But they did not definitively rule on the issue of whether a business can decline to serve gays and lesbians based on religious views, meaning the broader contentious issue is likely to simmer.
The US Supreme Court legalised same- sex marriage nationwide in 2015, and the state of Colorado has a series of anti- discrimination laws that protect gay people.
Phillips had argued that he refused to serve the couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, in 2012 because their planned marriage ran counter to his Christian faith.
The Colorado commission’s “hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in an 18- page majority opinion.