Supreme Court sends cake case back to Washington State high court COURTESY OF LAMBDA LEGAL The US Supreme Court has, for the third time, essentially kicked the can down the road on the question of businesses claiming religious exemptions from providing goods and services for same-sex weddings. On June 17, the high court sent a gay wedding cake case — in which Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer had prevailed over Melissa and Aaron Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, who declined to make a cake for the lesbian couple’s 2013 wedding — back to the Oregon Court of Appeals for reconsideration in light of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission . In that Colorado case, the Supreme Court found in favor of baker Jack Phillips, but critically not on his underlying claim that he enjoyed free exercise of religion and free speech exemptions from the state’s nondiscrimination law. Instead, in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court found that the Commission had not given Phillips a respectful, neutral forum to consider his religious freedom claim. Though Kennedy pointed to several factors raising concerns about the neutrality of the forum the baker […]
