Gay Wedding Cake Case Comes To Supreme Court

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The illusion that marriage would cause to any couple can be a good engine to carry out all the preparations for a wedding.

But for David Mullins and Charlie Craig, a Colorado gay couple hoping to have a wedding cake as beautiful as any couple's, it was harder for them not to get the service from a local bakery that refused to do it. a cake from a same-sex couple because they believe that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman.

Bakery owner Jack Phillips and his attorneys relied in part on the First Amendment, freedom of expression.

The case reached the Supreme Court of Justice, which had to lead with a confrontation between religious freedom and the rights of the LGBT community.

All eyes were on Judge Anthony Kennedy, who may have to reconcile two aspects of his jurisprudence: a comprehensive vision of freedom of expression rights. During Tuesday's hearing, Kennedy appeared to be shuffling mixed ideas during the lively, and sometimes thrilling, presentation of arguments, according to CNN.

Phillips' lawyer, for his part, presented his freedom of speech argument in the name of the pastry chef's "artistic expression," Judge Elena Kagan and other liberal members of the court wasted no time in asking the question of where he was supposed to be. they were to draw a consistent line indicating that business owners could qualify to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws. A jeweler? A makeup artist? A stylist?

Kennedy was concerned about the dignity of same-sex couples. He wondered if Phillips prevailed: "Could the pastry chef put up a sign in his window, [that says] 'don't bake cakes for gay weddings'?" The 81-year-old magistrate expressed concern that an "affront to the gay community" would be felt.

But when the issue focused on the right to practice any religion, Kennedy was infuriated with a part of the record where one of the commissioners of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, who ruled against Phillips, pointed out that using freedom of religion to justify discrimination is a piece of "despicable" rhetoric.

The four liberal judges at the country's top court forum seemed convinced that the Colorado state pastry chef should serve all of his clients, regardless of sexual orientation.

But conservative judges heard the argument that the pastry chef could not be forced to use his company or his talents to convey a "message" contrary to his religion.

A curious fact about this case is that it is expected that the decision on this case will be known in June, a month that traditionally many couples choose for the celebration of their marriage.