Another do-over for Sweetcakes

An Oregon appeals court Wednesday ordered the state to reconsider damages awarded in a 2013 discrimination case filed against Christian bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein. Two women sued for emotional damage after the Kleins declined to bake a cake for their same-sex wedding. The embattled bakers, former owners of Sweetcakes by Melissa, are in for a new round of litigation after being forced to shutter their business in 2015.

In a 37-page ruling, the Oregon Court of Appeals doubled down on its finding that the Kleins’ broke the state’s nondiscrimination law and that the law does not violate their religious liberty. But the judges said the state agency that handled the Kleins’ case showed hostility toward their religious beliefs and should reconsider its judgment of $135,000 against them.

Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer sued the Kleins in 2013 after a 2012 cake-tasting at which Aaron Klein informed Rachel that he could not bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. In a subsequent encounter with Rachel’s mother, who challenged him on his religious views, Aaron quoted Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

With the assistance of First Liberty Institute, the Kleins appealed a 2017 ruling against them by the Oregon Court of Appeals. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the ruling and asked the court to reconsider the case in light of its ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In that case, the court struck down a similar Colorado ruling against baker Jack Phillips after state officials exhibited hostility to his religious beliefs.

In setting aside the damages award, the court criticized the state prosecutor for equating Aaron Klein’s religious beliefs with prejudice. “Given [the agency’s] overarching and multifaceted role in this case, it directly suggests a governmental preference for one faith perspective over another in what remains an ongoing, emotionally hard discussion within American communities of faith,” Judge Erin Lagesen wrote for a three-judge panel.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to review a 2021 federal appeals court ruling applying a similar nondiscrimination rule to Colorado wedding photographer Lorie Smith. Hopes are pinned on Smith’s case after the court declined to review a Washington Supreme Court ruling against florist Barronelle Stutzman in June 2021. Stutzman ultimately agreed to sell her business in order to avoid millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees and costs.

First Liberty’s Stephanie Taub said the court should not have limited the finding of bias to the damages in the case.

“There was a bias that infected the whole decision, and the proper remedy would be to dismiss the whole case,” she said, noting the irony that despite this anti-Christian bias, the court sent the case back to the very same agency for a do-over. Taub said First Liberty will appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court and, if necessary, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

For the Kleins, who no longer live in Oregon, the decadelong battle is not just about winning a case but about God’s faithfulness. “It’s definitely been hard on our family, it’s taken a toll on our family,” said Melissa Klein in a 2018 interview after the court’s initial ruling against them. “But I can say, too, that God is so good, and he’s been taking care of us.”

—WORLD has updated this report to correct the date of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling in the Sweetcakes case.