The Christian owner of a bakery in Colorado is being sued for a third time for refusing to bake a cake which violates his conscience.
In a landmark legal case last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that Jack Phillips faced “clear and impermissible hostility” after declining to produce a cake for a same-sex wedding.
He is now being sued over his objection to creating a ‘trans cake’.
Message, not the customer
Transgender customer Autumn Scardina requested Phillips make him a ‘birthday cake’, which would be blue on the outside and pink in the middle, symbolising Scardina’s ‘transition’ from male to female.
The lawsuit was originally filed by the State of Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission, which lost the previous case over the same-sex wedding cake.
The Commission dropped Scardina’s case after the baker countersued for harassment, and the customer has now decided to pursue legal action privately.
Scardina’s lawyers say their client was not served because he is transgender, while Phillips’ lawyers maintain it is the messaging that he objects to.
Harassment
Phillips is being defended by Alliance Defending Freedom, which has helped him in the two previous cases.
Senior Counsel Jim Campbell said: “A new lawsuit has been filed against Masterpiece Cakeshop that appears to largely rehash old claims.”
He added that the latest challenge “looks like yet another desperate attempt to harass cake artist Jack Phillips.
“And it stumbles over the one detail that matters most: Jack serves everyone; he just cannot express all messages through his custom cakes.”