Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

In this case, a religious Christian cake artist was sued for declining to custom-design a cake celebrating a same-sex marriage ceremony.

Colorado native and cake artist, Jack Phillips, has been designing custom cakes since he opened Masterpiece Cakeshop in 1993. In July 2012, two men came to Jack’s Lakewood store in search for a wedding cake for their upcoming same sex ceremony. Jack declined the request, explaining that he could not create a customized design for a same-sex ceremony. Jack offered to sell them any pre-made cake, but, due to his faith, he could not create a cake promoting same-sex ceremonies.

After the couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission for sexual orientation discrimination, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys came to Jack’s defence. The commission instructed Jack and his team to violate Jack’s faith and create the wedding cake celebrating same-sex marriage or stop baking all wedding cakes which equated to 40% of the business.

After petitioning the United States Supreme Court to take up Jack’s case in July 2016, the court granted review of the case on June 26, 2017. On December 5, 2017, ADF argued on Jack’s behalf.

JCRL joined and contributed to an amicus brief filed by the Whitehead Law Firm of Kansas City, MO on behalf of a number of religious groups.

The full brief is available for download here.