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Supreme Court’s gay cake case is about a lack of religious tolerance

Supreme Court’s gay cake case is about a lack of religious tolerance

by Judith Kim

Three years ago, when Oregon Christian baker Melissa Klein was prosecuted for not decorating a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, one of my law school classmates bemoaned the government’s overreach. He was politically conservative, and openly gay. Baffled by his stance, I argued intensely with him, holding him for so long that he regretted making such comments on his way to the bathroom. Recently, I told him what most attorneys like to hear: You were right.

This June, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The facts of the case are similar to the Oregon one: a same-sex couple tries to buy a custom-decorated wedding cake from a business owned by a Christian baker; they were refused based on the bakers’ religious beliefs. Both couples asked their states’ civil rights agencies to prosecute the offending bakers. Both prosecutions were upheld by state courts.

Read the whole article originally published in The Hill on November 21, 2017.