Transgender-Cake Lawsuit Against Christian Dismissed by Colorado Supreme Court
by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Christian baker Jack Phillips on procedural grounds, granting him another victory while avoiding First Amendment and discrimination issues.
In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that transgender lawyer Autumn Scardina improperly sued in Denver District Court after her discrimination complaint against Mr. Phillips was dismissed by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
“Irrespective of the merits of Scardina’s claim, the district court here was not permitted to consider her case,” Colorado Supreme Court Justice Melissa Hart wrote in the 4-3 majority opinion.
However, the decision did not evaluate the lawsuit’s merits. The lawsuit claimed Mr. Phillips violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to create a pink-and-blue cake for Ms. Scardina to commemorate her gender transition anniversary in 2017.
Jack Warner, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), praised the ruling and called for an end to the “harassment” Mr. Phillips has faced since he first declined to create a same-sex wedding cake 12 years ago on First Amendment grounds, stating, “Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mr. Phillips’ favor in its 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, determining that the panel showed hostility toward his Christian beliefs.
“That ruling did not address Phillips’s free-speech rights to decline to create custom cakes expressing messages that violate his faith.” They added, “Now, the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling has ended the most recent lawsuit against Phillips, dismissing the case because the attorney who filed it did not follow the right process. Like the prior win, this ruling does not address Phillips’ free-speech rights,” the ADF said in a statement.
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