Jack Phillips / masterpiececakes.com
CV NEWS FEED // Just before oral arguments began on June 18 in his lawsuit before the Colorado Supreme Court, Christian baker Jack Phillips said that his fight for religious freedom and free speech is a battle to protect every American’s rights.
Oral Arguments at the Colorado Supreme Court
Phillips’ remarks were referring to the third lawsuit in the last 12 years that he has battled over his religious freedom rights and refusals to create custom cakes that express messages inconsistent with his Christian beliefs. The latest lawsuit, filed in 2019 by transgender attorney Autumn Scardina, centers around Phillips’ refusal to bake a blue and pink custom cake to symbolize a transition from male to female.
Phillips told legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) during a live-streamed interview shortly before oral arguments began that he’s not just fighting for his own rights.
“Even if you don’t agree with my stance on marriage or gender transition things, these judges have to look at the law and say that these laws protect everybody—and if they can take them away from me, they can take them away from everybody,” Phillips said. “That’s why we’re still standing in this fight.”
ADF’s chief legal counsel Jim Campbell said that the June 18 oral arguments, which senior counsel Jake Warner presented, would hinge on a U.S. Supreme Court case decided last year, 303 Creative v. Elenis.
The lawsuit centered around a Christian website and graphic design artist, Lorie Smith, and how Colorado law forced Smith to create messages and designs inconsistent with her religious beliefs on marriage. The Supreme Court ruled in Smith’s favor, creating a precedent that Campbell said will likely play into the Colorado Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling on Phillips’ case.
Smith, who was also present during the live-streamed interview, agreed with Phillips that both her case and his current case defend and protect the rights of every American.
“No American should be forced to create and celebrate or design a message that violates what they believe and the core of who they are,” she said, later adding:
As I was praying in those moments before I decided to take a stand I thought about others. I know that if I want freedom for myself I have to defend it for others. I thought about my daughter; I thought about the next generation. If my daughter and her friends grow up to be artists, I don’t want them to have to be in the same place that I am, which means that I need to take a stand and protect these rights today and defend it for others, for future generations.
Background
Phillips first came under attack in 2012 for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. A lawsuit between his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, ultimately ending in a victory for Phillips and his bakery.
However, Scardina decided to target Phillips, requesting the blue and pink cake specifically to celebrate a gender transition. Later, Scardina also requested a cake depicting Satan smoking marijuana. The ensuing second lawsuit, filed by Phillips against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission once more, was eventually dropped and settled by the state after ADF unearthed evidence of the Commission’s anti-religious hostility.
The latest lawsuit was filed against Phillips by Scardina, leaving the Commission out of the case. After a district court and an appeals court ruled against Phillips, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed in late 2023 to hear the case.
Phillips emphasized in his June 18 interview with ADF that it’s not the customers he has a moral issue with, but rather the messages his custom cakes reflect.
“I want to serve everybody who comes in and treat them the best way that I can with the most respect, ” Phillips said. “I want them to realize that I’m a follower of Christ—that I want to serve them but there are also cakes that they might ask for that I would not be able to create because of the message.”
Campbell later added to Phillips’ statement, saying:
We’re trying to make it clear that Jack did not violate the law by declining to create that cake because Jack serves everyone. He’ll serve that individual that made that request but he just can’t create a cake that symbolizes and reflects a gender transition.
