Wedding Cake Case Study

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Recommended: Civil rights in the USA

Background
The case was brought forth when Charlie Craig and David Mullins went to a bakery to inquire on buying a cake from Masterpiece Cake. Mr. Jack Phillips is the owner of the bakery and he is a very famous cake maker and very religious man. The issue is when Mr. Craig and Mr. Mullins inquired Mr. Phillips to make a wedding cake to celebrate their union together. Mr. Phillips refused to provide them the service due to his religious beliefs that conflict with the wedding celebration of a same sex couple. There was a compliant filed to the administrative commission and the judge ruled for summary judgement.

Legal Issue
The supreme court is looking at the question does Colorado’s public accommodation laws violate the first amendment of the constitution pertaining to free speech. Colorado’s public accommodation laws protect people of race, religion, and sexual orientation discrimination. Also, Colorado’s public accommodation laws do explain that if a business …show more content…

Mr. Phillips the owner of the bakery says that his religious views is the sole reason he does not want to par take in a same-sex wedding celebration. His lawyers argued that there is a certain artistic expression when Mr. Phillips makes his cake and that it counts as free speech. This cake must convey some type of message. Since this cake is custom made for the same sex marriage it conveys a message that Mr. Phillips does not want his cake to be apart of the wedding ceremony. Mr. Phillip’s lawyers brought up Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc. in which people forming a parade did not allow the gay community to be apart of the parade. The supreme court ruled that private free speech can’t be infringed, you can’t force yourself to be part of a parade. Mrs. Waggoner argued that you can’t force Mr. Philips convey a message through artistic expression that goes against his religious

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