WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will take up the First Amendment challenge by a Lakewood baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, it was announced Monday.
The case was appealed after the Colorado Supreme Court declined to take up the case last year.
The state’s high court upheld a ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2015 that found Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips cannot cite religious beliefs or free-speech rights in refusing to make the cake.
The U.S. Supreme Court will rule between Phillips’ religious rights and the couple’s right to equal treatment under the law, and whether Phillips discriminated against the couple.
David Mullins and Charlie Craig went to the bakery in 2012. Phillips said it was against his religious beliefs to make a cake for a same-sex ceremony, and said he had turned down other couples on religious grounds.
In 2013, Judge Robert N. Spencer of the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts ruled Phillips broke discrimination laws.
In May 2014, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission found the bakery was in violation of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
Phillips appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, which heard the case in July 2015, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.