The Supreme Court lifted an order Monday that punished a Christian couple in Oregon who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, telling a lower court to reconsider the dispute in light of the high court’s decision last year involving another Christian baker in Colorado. The decision keeps a contentious social dispute over the rights of religious dissenters and LGBT patrons off the high court’s docket in the near term. “This is a victory for Aaron and Melissa Klein and for religious liberty for all Americans,” said Kelly Shackelford, president of First Liberty Institute, a law firm championing religious freedom that represents the Klein family. “The Constitution protects speech, popular or not, from condemnation by the government. The message from the court is clear; government hostility toward religious Americans will not be tolerated.” The Oregon case is in many respects a redux of the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop decision , which pertained to Jack Phillips, an evangelical baker in Colorado. Though the justices found for Phillips because a state panel displayed hostility toward his religious beliefs, the court did not say whether conservative religious believers can cite the First Amendment in refusing to accommodate a same-sex wedding. Like […]
