PMG FILE PHOTO – Aaron and Melissa Klein behind a sign for their former bakery. The Portland Tribune is a KOIN 6 media partner PORTLAND, Ore. ( Portland Tribune ) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has added a twist in its latest decision in the long-running case of a Gresham baker’s refusal to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple back in 2013. In an opinion released Wednesday, Jan. 26, the court upheld its original 2017 decision against the couple — Aaron and Melissa Klein, then doing business as Sweetcakes by Melissa — based on a 2015 determination by the Bureau of Labor and Industries that they violated Oregon’s 2007 law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. The couple argued that doing so would infringe on their religious rights. But the court also overturned its previous approval of $60,000 in noneconomic damages to Laurel Bowman-Cryer and $75,000 to Rachel Bowman-Cryer, both awarded by an administrative law judge in the bureau. The court found that the awards were based partly on a conversation about beliefs between Aaron Klein and Cheryl McPherson, Rachel’s mother, who the court found relayed it inaccurately to the couple. The court sent that part […]
