Colorado Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against religious baker

The state’s high court issued a 4-3 ruling to dismiss a lawsuit against Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips for standing by his religious convictions. Phillps gained national attention in 2012 when he was sued for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, citing the Biblical belief that marriage is solely between a man and a woman. Attorney Autumn Scardina ordered a custom cake from Masterpiece in 2018 to celebrate a surgery intended to hide gender characteristics. When Phillips declined the order, Scardina filed a discrimination lawsuit. The legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom represented Phillips and insisted Scardina’s lawsuit only aimed to antagonize him. Scardina first contacted Masterpiece sometime around 2012 and called Phillips a bigot years before placing the 2018 order, Alliance Defending Freedom said.

Where did the justices disagree on the ruling? The majority ruled that Scardina’s case, filed in a district court, did not meet the criteria for a district case based on the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. As a result, the case was dismissed and all the orders associated with the case were dismissed. The Colorado Supreme Court’s majority opinion made no judgment on the actual merits of Scardina’s case. The majority opinion erroneously gave Masterpiece and Phillips a procedural pass and declined to dig into the merits of this case, according to the dissenting trio. The majority ignored the argument that Scardina presented, namely that the attorney could pursue more administrative remedies within the legal system, the dissent alleged.

Although the ruling does not address Phillips’ free-speech rights—now affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis—it does shut down a religiously antagonistic lawsuit, Alliance Defending Freedom said.

Dig deeper: Listen to the report by Kristen Waggoner and Mary Reichardon The World and Everything in It about the landmark 303 Creative SCOTUS ruling.